Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin’s market cap is currently around four times Ether’s, and one BTC is worth more than 24 ETH.
- However, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin believes ETH has the potential to flip BTC.
- Lubin’s forecast stems from his belief that future financial markets will run on Ethereum rails.
Since its launch in 2015, Ethereum has always played second fiddle to Bitcoin. But after the price of ETH surged nearly 80% in the third quarter of 2025, could it one day flip BTC to become the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency?
That’s the position of Ethereum co-founder and perennial ETH bull Joe Lubin, who believes the blockchain will one day power huge swathes of the global economy.
Lubin Predicts ETH Will 100x
In a post on X, Lubin expressed his view that “ETH will likely 100x from here. Probably much more.”
Moreover, “Ethereum/ETH will flippen the Bitcoin/BTC monetary base,” he added, implying that it could usurp BTC’s throne as the dominant cryptocurrency.
At present, Bitcoin’s market cap is around four times Ether’s, and one BTC is worth more than 24 ETH.
Institutions To Stake ETH
Lubin’s argument is rooted in the ongoing adoption of Ethereum as a global digital infrastructure and ETH as a corporate treasury asset.
As major institutions replace the “many siloed stacks” they currently operate with Ethereum-based technologies, Wall Street will increasingly hold and stake ETH, he predicted.
“They will need their heads fully in our game,” Lubin said of large traditional financial institutions.
“That means staking, running validators, operating L2s/L3s/etc, participating in DeFi and writing smart contract software for agreements, processes and financial instruments,” Lubin added.
U.S. banks have been legally permitted to operate Ethereum validator nodes since March, when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) rescinded prior guidance that restricted them from directly participating in crypto staking.
According to Lubin, Wall Street’s adoption of Ethereum is still in its infancy. But many banks have already laid the groundwork, and are well-prepared to further embrace the technology.
Wall Street Embraces Ethereum
So far, no major Wall Street bank has yet taken the step of operating a validator node, although some smaller institutions do offer staking services. However, many banks have been working with Ethereum-based technologies for years.
Lubin highlighted JPMorgan as an example of a bank with an early head start.
As early as 2016, JPMorgan developed Quorum, a private Ethereum soft-fork designed for enterprise use cases that now hosts the tokenized deposit system, JPMD Coin.
Meanwhile, the bank continues to focus on Ethereum-flavored development, emphasizing the platform as a universal software environment, even if it has shied away from activity on the mainnet.
Institutional Investors Pile In
In the third quarter of 2025, Ethereum ETF inflows significantly outstripped Bitcoin funds, reflecting a strong appetite for ETH among institutional investors.
At the same time, a crop of ETH treasury companies has emerged, with companies like BitMine and Sharplink aggressively accumulating the asset in a scramble to become Ethereum’s MicroStrategy.
These developments mirror 2024’s post-ETF approval Bitcoin rush. But Ethereum’s rise isn’t just about price charts. As Lubin understands, what’s at stake is power, control, and the architecture of tomorrow’s economy.
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
