Fundstrat’s Tom Lee on Tuesday called Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) the most important Layer-1 for the AI era, arguing blockchains will become the critical layer for controlling AI and robots as their capabilities accelerate.

Why Lee Is Calling Ethereum the AI Downstream Play

Lee posted a four-part thread on X, responding to several posts about AI and crypto.

His core argument is that as AI capabilities follow a steep S-curve and robotics push beyond human limits, blockchains and smart contracts become the essential layer that keeps humans in control of what machines do. 

Ethereum, in his view, is the settlement and verification layer for that future.

“We see ETH as an important downstream story for AI,” Lee wrote in the thread’s final post, responding directly to Bitmine’s breakdown of the ETH/BTC ratio thesis.

What the AI ‘Hive Mind’ Has to Do With Ethereum

Lee responded to a post citing Stanford research showing that major AI models have quietly converged toward a shared intelligence through synthetic data training loops, with a 98% overlap in reasoning pathways across leading models. 

Rather than seeing this as a threat, Lee argued it makes blockchain infrastructure more relevant because smart contracts provide a transparent, verifiable layer to govern what a unified AI system actually does and keep humans in the loop.

Lee also responded to a Bitcoin Magazine post noting that BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), which manages $15 trillion in assets, remains bullish on Bitcoin despite its 50% decline from all-time highs. 

He agreed with the broader thesis but steered toward Ethereum, arguing it will be the most important Layer-1 as AI and robotics use cases grow.

Meanwhile, on the robotics front, Lee replied to a post showing China’s new humanoid robot jumping nearly two meters and running at 12.658 meters per second, exceeding human physical limits. 

He flagged blockchains as the important settlement layer to verify and control robot actions as those capabilities keep advancing.

What The ETH/BTC Ratio Shows

Lee noted the ETH/BTC ratio currently sits at 0.02994 and rising, breaking above its long-term downtrend. 

Moreover, prior ratio expansions were driven by ICOs, NFTs, and stablecoins. He expects Wall Street tokenization and agentic AI to drive the next one.

Image: Shutterstock