According to BitMEX chair Tom Lee, Ethereum may eventually surpass Bitcoin’s market share, reminiscent of the way US equities overtook gold 54 years ago when the US left the gold standard.
“Ethereum could flip Bitcoin in a manner similar to how Wall Street and equities flipped gold post-71,” Lee mentioned during an interview with ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on Thursday.
Currently, Bitcoin’s (BTC) market capitalization is approximately 4.6 times greater than Ethereum’s, standing around $2.17 trillion compared to $476.33 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Lee references the “Nixon Shock” to support Ethereum’s case
Lee, who supervises BitMine’s Ethereum accumulation strategy, indicated that Ethereum might ascend similarly to how the US dollar gained dominance after 1971, following President Richard Nixon’s decision to make the dollar “fully synthetic” and not backed by gold.
He noted that when that change occurred, “The immediate beneficiary was demand and a market for gold.”
However, he added, “Wall Street developed products that enabled the dollar’s dominance, with the market cap of equities now at 40 trillion compared to gold’s 2 trillion.”
“By the end of that period, dollar dominance increased from 27% in GDP terms to 57% of central bank reserves and 80% of financial transactions,” he stated, further explaining:
“Dollar dominance is poised to present Ethereum a significant opportunity,” he elaborated, as “everything becomes…tokenized.”
The flippening has been a long-standing discussion
“As we transition dollars onto the blockchain—via stablecoins—we’ll also be transferring stocks and real estate,” he remarked.
Despite this, he underscored that it remains a “working theory” and that he continues to be a Bitcoin bull.
The concept of the “flippening,” where Ethereum might one day exceed Bitcoin’s market capitalization, has been debated for years but has garnered renewed focus in recent months.
In August, ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin asserted that Ethereum would “surge by 100 times and flip Bitcoin as a ‘monetary base.’”
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Conversely, Bitcoin advocate and Jan3 founder Samson Mow remarked that Ethereum investors would revert to Bitcoin once ETH prices rose sufficiently.
Earlier, in August 2021, DeVere Group CEO Nigel Green proclaimed, “Ethereum’s rise to the pinnacle of the cryptoverse appears inevitable.”
“Ethereum is already light-years ahead of Bitcoin in all respects except for price and recognition,” Green commented.
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