Stablecoins and tokenization: Tom Lee confronts banks with the risk of delay

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Tom Lee's reasoning is based on a common bias: considering that the recent situation will continue. Since the majority of payments, securities and their conservation still pass through traditional circuits, crypto services may seem permanently secondary.

According to him, this reading neglects the possibility of acceleration. A bank that waits for mass adoption before developing its skills could find it difficult to keep up with its already equipped competitors. The activities concerned go beyond the purchase of cryptocurrencies: they include payments in stablecoins, the custody of digital assets and securities represented on a blockchain.

The 99% figure remains an estimate put forward by Mr Lee. The available reports do not specify its calculation scope. Payments, securities outstanding and trading volumes constitute different measures, difficult to bring together in a single indicator.

The interest of new infrastructures lies in particular in their continuous availability and the possibility of automating certain operations. However, a rapid transfer on a blockchain does not remove all constraints. Conversions into bank currencies, compliance checks and access to funds also depend on intermediaries.

The question therefore does not come down to replacing old technology. Banks must integrate these services with their security, risk management and customer protection obligations.

At JPMorgan, this adaptation takes the form of JPM Coin, whose symbol is JPMD. After an experiment launched in June 2025, the bank opened this deposit token to its institutional clients on Base in November of the same year.

It represents a bank deposit in digital form and allows almost instantaneous transfers, available continuously. It thus differs from a classic stablecoin: its holder has a claim on the issuing bank.

SWIFT follows a different approach. In September 2025, the network announced a shared registry project with Consensys and more than thirty financial institutions, intended in particular for international payments available 24 hours a day. The objective combines modernization of existing infrastructure and development of new services.

These examples show that traditional players can integrate blockchain without abandoning their role as intermediaries. Competition then focuses on the services offered, their cost and their accessibility.

Tom Lee also defends this transformation as president of BitMine, a company whose strategy is based on the accumulation of ETH. His analysis is therefore part of a strong investment conviction. Banking projects give substance to this thesis, but their existence sets neither the pace of adoption nor the final place of the different networks.

Machine-translated from French