Fundstrat’s Tom Lee Reveals Why Investors Left Ethereum For Solana – Details
Tom Lee, veteran buying and selling analyst, Fundstrat co‑founder, and the strategist behind BitMine’s Ethereum treasury strategy, is as soon as once more championing Ethereum.
Throughout an interview with Mario Nawfal on X, Lee acknowledged how the broader crypto group appeared to desert Ethereum in favor of sooner options like Solana and Sui. Nonetheless, institutional traders, notably Wall Road gamers, worth one thing way more vital, which only Ethereum can provide.
Retail Chases Pace, Wall Road Favors Reliability
In the interview, Lee challenges the idea that blockchain networks should prioritize transaction pace above all. Somewhat, he argues that institutional traders, notably Wall Road traders, place a lot larger worth on uptime and reliability, qualities that Ethereum has regardless of being slower at its base layer.
Lee mentioned that retail traders deserted Ethereum as a result of they thought sooner was higher, main them towards high-throughput networks like Solana and Sui with seemingly superior economics. However in keeping with him, Wall Street thinks differently. Establishments prioritize “100 % uptime,” as a result of they’ll all the time deploy on layer‑2 options to compensate for Ethereum’s base-layer pace limitations.
Curiously, Lee pointed to staking as one other issue during which Ethereum is best than its counterparts. In accordance with Lee, staking isn’t nearly yield, nevertheless it’s about affect. “If Goldman stakes sufficient ETH, they’ve a constructive voice on the Ethereum itself and the way they improve,” he mentioned. In brief, institutional stakeholders like Goldman Sachs would care extra about influencing Ethereum by staking, however this isn’t a weak spot.
Lee famous that many veteran traders he just lately spoke with nonetheless see Ethereum as underperforming, not due to any technological shortcomings, however as a result of its worth persistently lagged behind Bitcoin for months. Nonetheless, this notion is now beginning to shift with Ethereum’s worth motion since July.
After Ethereum broke previous $4,800, the power in worth is bettering confidence amongst crypto traders, and this momentum might set the stage for a lot bigger progress for its worth motion within the close to future.
Ethereum Worth Motion
Ethereum certainly has been on a exceptional upward arc since July. In late August 2025, the Ethereum worth smashed by its earlier all‑time excessive and traded above $4,880 for the primary time since 2021, earlier than lastly peaking at $4,946. This, in flip, noticed the Ethereum complete market cap virtually hitting the $600 billion mark
The rally wasn’t simply worth motion. It echoed structural shifts within the institutional influx dynamics into massive cryptocurrencies, particularly as seen within the performance of Spot Ethereum ETFs compared to Bitcoin.
Though Ethereum has since entered into a correction path down to the $4,400 stage, the sentiment surrounding Ethereum remains to be bullish. Analysts have raised yr‑finish forecasts of Ethereum from between $6,000 and $12,000, based mostly on increased institutional engagement and a constructive affect from the US Genius Act. On the time of writing, Ethereum is buying and selling at $4,390, up by 1.1% previously 24 hours.
Featured picture from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
