Has The Crypto Treasury Bubble Burst? Tom Lee Thinks So

BitMine’s Chairman, Tom Lee, has shared his perspective on the recent surge of crypto-focused treasury companies and the future of this multi-billion-dollar trend.

On Thursday, BitMine’s Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee joined Fortune’s Crypto Playbook Podcast to discuss the surge of Digital Assets Treasury (DAT) companies and why he thinks the bubble surrounding these vehicles may have already burst.

Discussing the need for this alternative type to get exposure to crypto assets, Lee argued that DATS “are not just passive vehicles,” and properly executed companies will get capital and be supported by investors.

He noted that companies like Strategy and BitMine, the two largest crypto treasuries in the world, both see several billion dollars of daily trading volume, adding that “the two companies combined are 86% of all trading volume for the DATs.”

Lee was also asked about the argument that the trend is creating a potential bubble. Fortune’s senior crypto analysts questioned whether the bubble might burst and have a negative impact now that there are hundreds of DATs in the market.

He affirmed that the bubble has likely already burst, at least to some capacity, and argued that around 80% of these firms are trading below the net value of their underlying assets. “If that’s not already a bubble burst (…), how would that bubble burst?”

Nonetheless, BitMine’s chair explained that instead of questioning if a bubble has burst, he prefers asking if the market has become discerning, which he thinks it already has.

Lee argued that, while other crypto treasuries have not been creators of shareholder value, BitMine is “not just a DAT,” but also the largest holder of Ethereum (ETH) in the world.

Notably, BitMine is a Bitcoin and Ethereum Network Company with a focus on accumulating crypto for long-term investment. The company aims to own 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, currently holding 3.03 million ETH tokens, or over 2.5% of the total supply.

According to Lee, this gives BitMine multiple roles, including providing a significant amount of security to the Ethereum network. Based on these roles, he considers the company is “essentially a liaison between how Wall Street views future upgrades to Ethereum, to the community.”

“So we’re not just a DAT. We’re becoming, you know, one of the important voices within Ethereum, and that really was our goal. You know, that’s why, when BitMine was created,” he said.

Adding to his argument, Lee has previously asserted that the company is confident that the two “Supercycle investing narratives remain AI and crypto,” which will “play out over decades.”

As a result, he considers that “Ethereum remains the premier choice given its high reliability and 100% uptime.” During the Podcast, BitMine’s chairman reaffirmed this stance, stating:

“The tokenization of everything else, (…), is in the quadrillions. You know, especially as AI moves towards micro payments, which need to happen on the blockchain. That to me is a bigger opportunity, and (…) Ethereum is where a lot of this is going to be built. (…) So to me, there’s still an exponential opportunity in owning ETH over Bitcoin,” Lee concluded.