Tom Lee: The role of Ethereum in the tokenized crypto space is gaining attention

The increasing importance of Ethereum in the institutional finance sector has become a focal point on CNBC’s Power Lunch program last week. Here, Tom Lee – co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors – predicted that the price of Ether could reach $7,000–$9,000 by early 2026, as Wall Street accelerates asset tokenization and shifts financial activities onto blockchain platforms.

Source: Fundstrat’s YouTube Channel Tom Lee believes that the investment value of Ether is increasingly tied to its role as financial infrastructure, amid major Wall Street institutions experimenting with on-chain payments and issuing tokenized securities. “Wall Street is moving towards tokenizing all kinds of assets,” he emphasized, citing notable initiatives at Robinhood and BlackRock. According to him, this shift will bring significant efficiencies to traditional finance while laying the groundwork for practical applications of Ether.

Tom Lee also forecasts that if the pace of adoption continues to accelerate, Ether’s price could potentially reach $20,000 in the future.

Additionally, Tom Lee expressed an optimistic view of Bitcoin, calling it a “true store of value,” and assessed that a rise to $200,000 next year is entirely feasible. He also believes that Bitcoin’s recent lower attractiveness compared to gold is only temporary.

Tom Lee is currently Chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies – a leading Ether-focused treasury management company, holding up to 4,066,062 ETH, according to data from CoinGecko.

Top 5 Ethereum treasury management companies | Source: CoinGecko## Ethereum Leads the Trend in Real-World Asset Tokenization

Tokenized real-world assets—including traditional financial instruments and physical assets digitized on blockchain—have experienced remarkable growth this year, with the total market value reaching approximately $18.9 billion, up from $5.6 billion at the beginning of 2025.

According to data from RWA.xyz, U.S. government debt is the largest tokenized asset class, valued at around $8.5 billion, followed by commodities at approximately $3.4 billion.

Ethereum currently dominates the value of tokenized real-world assets on public blockchains. As of the end of December 2025, this network has stored over $12 billion in tokenized assets, far surpassing competitors like BNB Chain, Solana, and Arbitrum.

RWA tokenized on blockchain | Source: RWA.xyz Furthermore, Ethereum also leads in stablecoin issuance, with the total stablecoin issued on the network reaching about $170 billion, reinforcing its role as the primary payment layer for dollar-denominated activities on blockchain.

Market capitalization of stablecoins by network | Source: RWA.xyz Institutional interest in tokenized real-world assets continues to grow in December, as the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced plans to partially tokenize U.S. Treasury securities managed by its subsidiary, Depository Trust Company, on the Canton network.

DTCC currently operates the post-trade infrastructure for the U.S. stock market, with its subsidiaries processing approximately $3.7 trillion in securities transactions last year.