Tom Lee: Asset Tokenization and Agentic AI Could Trigger a New ETH Rally

According to PRNewswire, Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitcoin treasury company Bitmine, stated that during historical crypto bull market cycles, the ETH/BTC ratio typically rises as Ethereum's usage increases relative to Bitcoin. For instance, NFTs in 2020-2021 and stablecoins in 2025 have both served as important catalysts driving Ethereum's application growth. In the next cycle, Wall Street's tokenization of assets and deployment on blockchain, as well as Agentic AI's use of blockchain, could further push the ETH/BTC ratio higher. Since Q3 2026, ETH has been the best-performing macro asset, outperforming the S&P 500 by 5,430 basis points as of last Friday. The top three best-performing asset classes since June 30 are ETH, BTC, and SOL. Crypto assets' significant outperformance relative to other macro assets in Q3 to date could further attract institutions to increase crypto allocations. Tom Lee added that heading into the final months of 2026, the crypto market faces multiple positive catalysts, including the anticipated mid-September vote on the CLARITY Act, Korean investors re-entering crypto assets and rotating from AI stocks into the crypto market, and the "four-year cycle" he believes will bottom out in the coming weeks. These factors could pave the way for large-scale institutional capital inflow in the final months of 2026.