Welcome to the US Crypto News Morning Briefing—your essential rundown of the most important developments in crypto for the day ahead.
Grab a coffee as the Ethereum (ETH) debate heats up again with bold claims from Wall Street voices meeting sharp rebuttals from crypto-native researchers. At stake is whether Ethereum’s core narratives, including stablecoin adoption, digital oil comparisons, and institutional demand, truly justify the asset’s lofty long-term valuation.
Crypto News of the Day: Kang Challenges Core Arguments Behind Bullish ETH Outlook
Ethereum’s long-term valuation case is facing sharp criticism after crypto investor and DeFi researcher Andrew Kang tore apart Tom Lee’s latest ETH thesis.
SponsoredTom Lee’s thesis on ETH potentially doing 100x centers on it entering a macro super cycle. The Fundstrat co-founder and BitMine Chairman identified Wall Street adoption, AI integration, and BitMine’s status as a compliant, yield-generating blockchain as key drivers.
He sees a chance of ETH flipping Bitcoin’s market cap, with near-term targets of $4,000 to $15,000 by 2025. Lee anticipates up to $20,000 or more for the longer-term upside based on historical ratios and institutional buying.
Kang labeled the analysis as one of the most retarded combinations of financially illiterate arguments he has seen from a high-profile market voice.
At the heart of Kang’s rebuttal is the claim that stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) adoption will not directly translate into meaningful revenue for Ethereum.
“Since 2020, tokenized asset value and stablecoin transaction volumes have increased 100-1000x…Fees are practically at the same level as in 2020,” Kang noted.
He pointed to multiple reasons for this disconnect, including more efficient Ethereum upgrades, migration of stablecoin activity to other blockchains, and the tokenization of low-velocity assets that generate minimal fees.
For Kang, the beneficiaries of tokenization are not Ethereum but faster-moving competitors.
Sponsored Sponsored“Solana, Arbitrum, and Tempo are seeing most of the early big wins,” he wrote, highlighting Tether’s recent decision to expand USDT activity onto new chains like Plasma and Stable.
Lee’s characterization of ETH as digital oil also came under fire. Kang countered that oil is a commodity whose inflation-adjusted price has stayed range-bound for a century.
“ETH could be viewed as a commodity, but that’s not bullish,” he argued.
Institutional Demand and Technicals Fail to Convince
Another cornerstone of Lee’s bullish case is that institutions will accumulate ETH and stake it in their tokenization strategies.
Kang dismissed this outright, observing that no major financial institutions have purchased ETH for their balance sheets or publicly announced plans to do so.
Sponsored“Do banks stock up on barrels of gasoline because they continually pay for energy? No. They just pay for it when they need to,” the analyst posed, drawing parallels.
Andrew Kang was equally scathing about Lee’s projection that ETH could one day be worth as much as the entire financial infrastructure sector.
According to the analyst, this is a “fundamental misunderstanding of value accrual and just pure delusion.”
On the technical front, Kang argued that Ethereum’s chart tells a different story than Lee suggests. He likened its price action to crude oil.
ETH has recently tested the top of a range without breaking out, leaving the possibility of a prolonged $1,000–$4,800 trading corridor.
“The strongest observation is that Ethereum is in a multi-year range,” he said.
In Kang’s view, Ethereum’s valuation today rests more on “financial illiteracy” and broad macro liquidity than fundamentals.
He warned that without major organizational change, ETH risks indefinite underperformance against competitors and market expectations.
Sponsored SponsoredChart of the Day
Byte-Sized Alpha
Here’s a summary of more US crypto news to follow today:
- Arthur Hayes fuels Tether IPO speculations amid $500 billion valuation buzz.
- Peter Brandt advises Gen Z on Bitcoin, real estate, and SPY investments.
- Analyst shares four rules for thriving in today’s altcoin market.
- XRP faces headwinds: Can it reclaim $3 before September ends?
- Quiet before the storm? Bitcoin’s volatility sinks to a 22-month low.
- Binance adds Plasma (XPL) to the HODLer Airdrop page. What should users know?
- Japan, the US, and South Korea unite to strengthen cybersecurity and AI.
- Coinbase, Cloudflare launch x402 Foundation for AI payments.
Crypto Equities Pre-Market Overview
| Company | At the Close of September 23 | Pre-Market Overview |
| Strategy (MSTR) | $327.78 | $331.56 (+1.15%) |
| Coinbase (COIN) | $320.07 | $323.80 (+1.17%) |
| Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY) | $33.14 | $33.78 (+1.93%) |
| MARA Holdings (MARA) | $17.71 | $18.03 (+1.81%) |
| Riot Platforms (RIOT) | $17.07 | $17.73 (+3.86%) |
| Core Scientific (CORZ) | $17.00 | $17.00 (0.00%) |
