Tom Lee Predicts Bitcoin & Ethereum Surge as Gold and Silver Momentum Cools

When traditional safe havens lose their shine, digital assets step into the spotlight. That's the bold call from Fundstrat's Tom Lee, who sees a major rotation brewing.

The Great Rotation Play

Lee's thesis hinges on capital flow. Investors pile into gold and silver during periods of macro uncertainty—old habits die hard. But that trade gets crowded, momentum stalls, and the smart money starts hunting for the next asymmetric bet. Enter crypto.

Bitcoin and Ethereum don't just sit idle; they become the primary beneficiaries. It's a classic risk-on pivot, turbocharged by crypto's 24/7 market structure. The move isn't subtle—it's a floodlight switching from one asset class to another.

Why Crypto Wins the Relay Race

Digital assets offer what precious metals can't: programmability, decentralized utility, and a growth narrative tied to technological adoption, not just fear. When gold cools, it's often because broader risk appetite is thawing. That thaw fuels the engines of innovation, not relic stores of value.

Lee's track record gives the forecast weight. He's navigated multiple cycles, calling shifts when consensus clung to outdated playbooks. This isn't about a slight uptick; it's about a significant rally catalyzed by reallocated capital.

The Cynical Take

Of course, Wall Street loves a narrative that justifies moving your money from one of their products to another—the fees are just different line items on the same quarterly report.

So watch the metals. Their stagnation could be the starting pistol for crypto's next leg up. The money has to go somewhere, and lately, it prefers networks over nuggets.

Gold and silver rally pulls investors away from crypto

But there’s a problem this time around. Lee explained that crypto markets don’t have the boost they used to get from borrowed money because the whole industry has cleaned up its debt.

“Crypto doesn’t have the leverage tailwind because the industry delevered,” Lee told the network. He said right now, people are chasing after gold and silver instead of putting money into digital currencies.

“There’s a FOMO into buying that instead of crypto,” he added. Lee believes past patterns show that when precious metals take a break from climbing, Bitcoin and ethereum usually jump higher.

The split between metals and crypto has been clear in recent weeks. Gold reached an all-time high of $5,100 on Monday, going up about 17.5% since January started.

Silver has done even better, shooting up 57% so far this year and hitting $110.

Experts say the metal rally comes from several worries: tensions between countries, threats of new trade tariffs, and the continuing weakness of the dollar. These issues have pushed people toward old-school SAFE investments.

Lee said crypto is still recovering from a massive debt cleanup that happened on Oct. 10. He described that event as something that “crippled many key players” at trading platforms and among market makers.

The sector is “limping along,” he said, but the basic health of the industry has gotten much better since then.

Bitcoin struggles while institutional interest in Ethereum grows

Bitcoin hasn’t shown those improvements in its price. The biggest digital currency has dropped roughly 30% from where it stood in October. It can’t seem to get back above the $95,000 mark and has recently fallen back toward $86,000.

“The precious metal MOVE has sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the room,” Lee said. He thinks prices aren’t matching up with fundamentals, rather than showing real problems.

Lee clearly still trusts Ethereum. On Monday, BitMine, a company focused on Ether that has ties to Lee, bought another 20,000 ETH for $58 million, based on data from blockchain tracker Lookonchain.

Lee also mentioned that recent talks at the Davos forum showed banks and financial firms are increasingly interested in building on Ethereum and similar platforms.

Not everyone agrees that a weak dollar alone will push bitcoin higher. GugaOnChain, who analyzes data for CryptoQuant, said recent money leaving ETFs shows people still want gold when they’re worried.

“For BTC to thrive,” they said, “the weakness of the American currency must come from risk appetite, not from fear.“

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