ABAB News Logo
Back to Flash News

Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee: Vitalik saying ETH is a store of value and ETH is money is a seismic shift

Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR) Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee said that Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin announced at Devcon 8 in Mumbai that he had finally made up his mind: ETH is a store of value, and ETH is money, and that this statement was a “seismic shift,” clearly defining how ETH will capture value in the upcoming tokenization and AI supercycle.

Lee further pointed out that ETH is not a “cash flow” token model like HYPE or LIT, but pristine and trusted collateral, reflecting how Ethereum has become the Layer 1 of choice when most financial institutions move assets onto the blockchain. In other words, ETH as a store of value best fits ETH’s future roadmap, and also best fits the role ETH will play in the upcoming tokenization supercycle.

Related reports also mentioned that Bitmine increased its holdings by 9,587 ETH last week, lifting its position to about 6.07 million ETH, accounting for about 4.97% of Ethereum’s total supply. Vitalik later further elaborated on X that fee burning as a value base is not as strong as previously expected, optimizing fee burning may conflict with decentralization and anti-capture properties, and focusing on store of value better matches Ethereum’s core strengths.

Original source:

  1. Title: Bitmine official X post (quoting Tom Lee’s statement)
    Publisher: Bitmine (@BitMNR)
    Publication date: 2026-11-09
    URL: https://x.com/BitMNR/status/2119843834570182752（及相关线程）
    Source nature: Official company social media statement
    Verification status: The post content was checked, and Vitalik’s reported statement, Lee’s “seismic shift,” the HYPE/LIT comparison, the collateral positioning, and the tokenization supercycle wording were confirmed to be consistent with the original text.
    Supporting content: All of Lee’s reported speech and interpretations of Vitalik’s Devcon 8 remarks.

ABAB AI Insight

Lee framed Vitalik’s remarks as a narrative shift: from a fee-burning-dependent “ultrasound money” model to a store-of-value positioning centered on decentralization, anti-capture properties, and institution-grade collateral. This aligns with Ethereum’s current decline in fee revenue, as well as the trends of tokenization and institutions moving on-chain, and is also consistent with Bitmine’s strategy of continuing to accumulate and nearing its “5% alchemy” target.

This positioning emphasizes ETH as “trusted collateral” rather than a direct cash-flow asset, reducing dependence on a high-fee environment while strengthening its underlying role in institutional asset onboarding. However, the claim that “most financial institutions choose Ethereum” is Lee’s judgmental statement and needs to be cross-checked against actual institutional adoption data. Overall, this is a public recalibration of the Ethereum community’s long-term value narrative, rather than an immediate change in the technical roadmap.

ABAB News · Cognitive Law

  1. The value narrative of a public chain native token often shifts between “fee-driven” and “collateral/store of value,” depending on actual fee revenue and the pace of institutional adoption.