Ethereum as a Neutral Settlement Layer: Insights from Tom Lee at WebX2026

Ethereum as a Neutral Settlement Layer: Insights from Tom Lee at WebX2026

Tom Lee × David Walsh

At WebX2026, a fireside chat took place between Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, and David Walsh, co-founder of Ethereum Institutional. They discussed a wide range of topics centered around the use of Ethereum in corporate finance, including staking, the rise of Robinhood Chain, the integration of AI and cryptocurrencies, and expectations for the Japanese market.

Background of Bitmine's Founding and the Bullish Shift Towards ETH

Walsh asked Lee what initially attracted him to Ethereum as an asset, given his position as Chairman of one of the largest Ethereum treasury companies.
Tom Lee
I started writing about Bitcoin about ten years ago when it was less than $1,000, believing in the narrative of digital gold and writing the white paper. I thought institutional investors should allocate about 1-2% to Bitcoin, and that narrative has gained significant trust over the past decade.
Looking around the world, I began to believe that all financial infrastructures related to payments, credit provision, asset pricing, and transfer would ultimately be rebuilt on blockchain. From that perspective, our team became bullish on Ethereum and decided to create a treasury vehicle holding a large amount of Ethereum. It’s similar to Strategy but with a twist. I wanted to support the growth of the ecosystem through my role at Fundstrat and relationships with numerous financial institutions.

The Concept of ETH Staking and "Productivity"

Walsh, who previously worked on staking operations at the Ethereum Foundation, asked how much the staking element influenced investment decisions regarding Ethereum.
Tom Lee
The staking mechanism was very attractive to us. In proof-of-stake rather than proof-of-work, those validating transactions put their own ETH at risk to provide a security layer and earn yields in return. This structure allowed us to view the ETH held by Bitmine as a "productive asset."
In fact, of the 5.7 million ETH currently held by Bitmine, nearly 5 million ETH are staked natively, generating yields of about 2.7-2.9%.

The Neutral Role of Ethereum Institutional

Walsh introduced Ethereum Institutional as an organization that spun out from the Ethereum Foundation's enterprise team, mentioning that they have engaged with around 500 financial institutions over the past year, and discussed why Bitmine became a key funder.
Tom Lee
When EthLabs and Ethereum Institutional were seeking funding, I thought it was important for Bitmine to be one of the major contributors. Our capital is neutral. I was attracted to Ethereum because it is a neutral layer, and I believe it will become the future settlement layer in finance.
The opposite of neutrality is "centralization." In the world of technology and financial services, as a company, everyone wants their technology or platform to be used, and thus cannot truly be a neutral entity. I believe Ethereum's neutrality has been proven by the scale of its ecosystem and the diversity of its nodes and validators.

The Rise of Robinhood Chain and the Expansion of the L2 Ecosystem

Referring to the recent success of Robinhood Chain in terms of trading volume over the past two weeks, Walsh asked what it means for the overall market that companies like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Kraken are building their chains on Ethereum.
Tom Lee
I think Ethereum has not adequately showcased these achievements, but this is a significant accomplishment. Robinhood is an L2 built on Ethereum by Arbitrum, and its trading volume has already exceeded $1 billion, surpassing Hyperliquid's volume. There are voices suggesting it may soon surpass Solana's total trading volume. The transaction fees are also denominated in ETH, creating a mechanism that actually uses and consumes ETH. This is a significant tailwind for ETH.
The scale of the developer ecosystem is overwhelmingly large, both on Ethereum's mainnet and across the entire EVM. There are about 8,000 developers, and 1 million people use ETH daily. J.P. Morgan launched a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, initially contributing $100 million of its own funds, which increased by another $100 million on the first day, and then grew by 250% over the following weeks. Nine G-SIBs already have products operational on Ethereum's mainnet.

Cryptocurrencies in the AI Era and Expectations for the Japanese Market

The discussion shifted to the integration of AI and cryptocurrencies, as well as the importance of the Japanese market.
Tom Lee
Many investors only see short-term risk-reward and are reluctant to make bets looking 5 or 10 years ahead. However, AI has significant downstream implications. In the near future, AI may take over trading and invoice payments, posing a risk that AI could become economically stronger than users. It’s conceivable that AI systems could build their own financial rails and payment systems, excluding humans, leading to a scenario akin to a "wealth uncanny valley." This is why I believe a neutral control mechanism, such as a smart contract platform with guardrails and kill switches, is necessary.
Japan is a highly developed economy, and household net worth ranks among the highest in the world. For many years, it has been a cautious market focused on the bond market due to deflation, but the situation has changed significantly, and regulators are becoming more positive towards cryptocurrencies. Countries benefiting from the AI boom will eventually need to have equivalent cryptocurrency strategies, and I believe Japan is in a position to lead this transition to a new financial infrastructure.

Session Summary

Tom Lee concluded with his outlook on Ethereum's market share:

"I believe it is inevitable that over the next decade, all financial rails related to credit provision, fund transfers, and trading systems will migrate to blockchain. There is no reason why Ethereum should not account for 70% of that. The current asset scale operating on blockchain is still only in the hundreds of billions of dollars, but it should grow to trillions. I expect the price of ETH to rise significantly alongside that."