Bitmine chairman Tom Lee described Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s positioning of ETH as a store of value as a “seismic shift,” according to an Odaily report published on November 9, 2026, at 21:46:51 (UTC+8).
According to Lee’s account in the report, Buterin said at Devcon 8 in Mumbai that “ETH is a store of value; ETH is money.” Lee argued that this framing clarified how ETH would capture value in what he described as a future tokenization and AI supercycle.
Collateral, rather than cash flow
Lee contrasted ETH with tokens such as HYPE and LIT, which he characterized as cash-flow-focused. In his view, ETH instead serves as a pure, trustworthy collateral asset.
He also argued that Ethereum could become financial institutions’ preferred Layer 1 network as more of them move assets onto blockchains. Positioning ETH as a store of value, he said, best fits Ethereum’s future roadmap and its role in the tokenization supercycle he anticipates.
The evidence gap
The report presents Lee’s interpretation and expectations, not demonstrated outcomes. It provides no institutional adoption figures or evidence establishing that tokenization and AI activity will translate into value capture for ETH. The distinction matters: a proposed monetary role and expectations of future demand are not, by themselves, proof that the thesis will play out.