Tom Lee: Ethereum’s Layer-2 growth signals a new long-term supercycle

Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, chairman of BitMine, and one of Wall Street’s most vocal crypto optimists, has reiterated his bullish stance on Ethereum, describing the network as being in the midst of a “supercycle” despite its muted price action.

Speaking in a recent interview with CNBC, Lee said Ethereum is seeing increased activity across both Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, while its market price has lagged behind the strength of its fundamentals. 

Lee sees fundamentals outpacing price

In his interview with Morgan Brennan and John Fortt of CNBCOvertime, Lee praised Bitcoin’s resilience following the largest liquidation event that hit the crypto market earlier in October. 

He said, “Bitcoin has proven to be a pretty good store of value,” while comparing it with gold, and went further to say that it’s also true for Ethereum. Lee stated that “Ethereum is seeing so much activity and growth on the L1 and L2 because of stablecoins, and it’s not reflected in the price. It does take time.”

Lee added, “What I call the fundamentals of Ethereum is picking up; it argues for a pretty move into the end of the year as well.”

This means that he expects the prices to reflect the impact of the fundamentals as the year comes to a close. 

In his follow-up post on X, he stated, “Most of the time, price leads fundamentals, but there are times when fundamentals lead price.” He pointed to surging stablecoin demand and all-time-high transaction volumes as evidence that the next leg of Ethereum’s growth could be imminent.

Market doubts and competitive pressures

In September, Lee reportedly stated that Ethereum was entering a macro supercycle for the next decade. Lee stated that there will be increased institutional adoption and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. 

However, not everyone in the crypto space shares the same conviction, and one of them is Andrew Kang, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, who responded to Lee’s comments on X, calling the “supercycle” thesis “financially illiterate,” adding that Ethereum has to undergo an organizational change or remain in a state of “underperformance.” 

Following the October crash, crypto skeptic Peter Schiff gave Ethereum a scathing review, adding that investors should “get out now.”

Critics also note that Ethereum’s dominance in the stablecoin market has been gradually eroded by faster and cheaper blockchains such as Solana, where stablecoin settlement volumes have spiked in 2025.

However, despite the turbulent weeks, Ethereum has risen by over 3% in the past 24 hours, and it currently trades above $4,070 as of the time of writing, indicating renewed investor interest. 

The long-term view on Ethereum

Despite the criticisms, Lee has been steadfast in his belief in Ethereum and its potential. During the market crash, BitMine, already the world’s largest Ethereum treasury, went on a shopping spree, acquiring more ETH in its treasury. BitMine now has 3,236,014 ETH tokens in its crypto holdings. 

Investor and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki also seems bullish on Ethereum, as reflected in his post on X, where he wrote about the gap between the rich and the poor, old thinkers and new thinkers. 

Kiyosaki wrote, “People who acquire ETHEREUM  today @ $4000 will be like the rich who invested in Bitcoin when it was $4000. Old thinkers will be left behind as the GAP becomes the GRAND CANYON.”

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