Lubin Says ETH Could Rival Bitcoin and Gold as a Store of Value

In a Wednesday post on X, Lubin called Bitcoin and gold “high-powered money and excellent stores of value,” but said ETH “goes further.” He pointed to Ethereum’s resistance to censorship, use as collateral and smart contracts, which support lending, borrowing, trading and payments without traditional intermediaries. He also said the network can process financial agreements ranging from small payments to transactions worth billions of dollars.

Lubin described ETH as disinflationary and potentially deflationary when network activity is high. Ethereum’s EIP-1559 mechanism burns part of transaction fees, but the amount varies and does not always exceed new token issuance. His argument comes days after co-founder Vitalik Buterin said ETH’s long-term value should depend less on fee burning and more on its usefulness within a secure, decentralized financial system. Buterin said on November 8 that Ethereum should prioritize decentralization, security and resistance to external control, while retaining EIP-1559 even if burns remain below issuance.

Lubin also predicted that ETH would be “quantum-safe and AI-safe money” by the end of 2027 or partway through 2028 at the latest. That is earlier than the Ethereum Foundation’s published roadmap, which targets quantum resistance across the execution, consensus and data layers by December 2029. The Foundation’s September roadmap lists post-quantum signatures and other security upgrades as research and development priorities. Lubin separately said AI could accelerate economic growth and boost demand for blockchain-based financial agreements involving people and automated systems.

ETH traded near $2,050 on November 11, down about 3% in 24 hours, with a range of roughly $2,000 to $2,100 and daily volume of $14.22 billion, according to crypto.news market data. Lubin pointed to stablecoin activity and expected greater use of blockchain networks by companies and governments. Competition remains: in the third quarter, TRON held $90.75 billion in average USDT supply, ahead of Ethereum’s $87.73 billion, according to Token Terminal. Lubin expects Ethereum’s base network and layer-2 systems to support more financial activity and ETH’s monetary premium to grow as individuals, companies and governments hold it for transactions and financial agreements.