BitMine’s Tom Lee believes Ethereum might one day eclipse Bitcoin’s market cap, despite currently being nearly five times smaller.

“Ethereum could flip Bitcoin similar to how Wall Street and equities flipped gold post 71,” Lee said in an interview with ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on Thursday.

Bitcoin’s market cap is approximately 4.6 times larger than Ethereum’s, valued at around $2.17 trillion versus Ethereum’s $476.33 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Lee References the “Nixon Shock” to Advance Ethereum’s Case

As the chair of BitMine’s Ethereum accumulation strategy, Lee drew comparisons to the rise of the US dollar after 1971, when President Richard Nixon made it no longer tied to gold, leading to dollar dominance.

SetEther is down 13.31% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Lee mentioned, “The immediate beneficiary was demand and a market to own gold.” He continued, “Wall Street created products that made the dollar dominant, and the market cap of equities today is 40 trillion compared to 2 trillion for gold.”

According to him, “Dollar dominance is going to be the opportunity of Ethereum,” primarily driven by everything becoming tokenized.

Ongoing Debate About the Flippening

He stated, “So as we move dollars onto the blockchain, which is stablecoins, we’ll move stocks and real estate.” Despite this theory, he reiterated his support for Bitcoin.

The “flippening”—the notion that Ethereum will eventually outpace Bitcoin in market cap—has been discussed for years, recently gaining traction. In August, Consensys founder Joseph Lubin predicted Ethereum could surge by a factor of 100.

However, Bitcoin advocate and Jan3 founder Samson Mow argued that ETH investors might revert to Bitcoin when ETH prices reach a certain threshold.

Previously, DeVere Group CEO Nigel Green had also suggested, “Ethereum’s ascent to the top of the cryptoverse seems unstoppable.” He added, “Ethereum is already years ahead of Bitcoin in everything but price and fame.”