Ethereum price outperforms S&P 500 since Iran war. Ditch gold, buy crypto, says Tom Lee

Cryptocurrencies have lost almost half of their value since October — and this, Tom Lee says, is the perfect time to ditch your gold investments and bet on digital assets.

The head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors and chair of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, a digital asset treasury that invests heavily in Ethereum, offered that advice in a clip posted on the former company’s YouTube channel on Thursday, just as Ether’s price took a 3% nosedive over the past 24 hours.

“For the next year, I think that’s a money trade,” Lee said.

“As a wartime store of value, crypto looks a lot stronger. Crypto has been outperforming since the war started while gold has actually underperformed,” he said.

The call comes amid a $2 trillion downturn in the crypto market since October that has left most tokens heavily bruised, while other asset classes, like gold and stocks, soared to new highs in early 2026. Bitcoin is down 45% from its October peak while Ethereum has fallen nearly 60%. Many popular memecoins have plunged over 90%.

Ethereum bull case

But the tables have turned since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February — at least for Ethereum.

Since then, Ethereum is up 17% on a relative basis compared to the S&P 500, and has outperformed all major global market benchmarks including Bitcoin, Gold, Real Estate, MSCI World Energy and Mag-7 tech stocks, Fundstrat’s March research report shows.

To be sure, Lee warns of lingering risk stemming from the war in the Middle East.

“The US is at war with Iran. There’s misinformation. Investors are risk-averse. They want to sit on the sidelines. It’s very difficult to navigate markets like this,” he said.

Lee has long been a big supporter of Ethereum and forecasts the network’s Ether token will eventually hit $250,000.

Bitmine purchased another $133 million of Ether earlier this week, and now holds over $9 billion worth, the firm said.

Lee’s optimism is shared by institutions including BlackRock, the world’s largest investment manager overseeing $14 trillion, which launched a new Ethereum exchange-traded fund on March 12.

They see Ethereum as a key technology for tokenisation — the representation of traditional financial assets using blockchain-based tokens — as a means of lowering barriers to investment.

Despite the number two crypto stalling near $2,000, “key progress at the Ethereum protocol level continues to advance,” Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey, told DL News.

Sun said that Ethereum’s key thesis as an institutional-grade settlement layer remains intact, despite the market action.

“In this context, the market’s current discounting of Ether and related assets reflects a shift in sentiment and risk preference more than a fundamental rejection of the core thesis,” he said.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at [email protected].