Tom Lee says crypto bull market has just begun, with Wall Street tokenization driving gains

Wall Street’s adoption of asset tokenization and blockchain settlement networks could drive one of the largest cryptocurrency bull cycles yet, according to Tom Lee.

The shift would extend beyond dollar-backed stablecoins to a wider range of assets, bringing financial institutions more deeply into blockchain infrastructure, Lee said.

In an Altcoin Daily interview on November 7, the Fundstrat founder described the roughly year-long crypto downturn as over and said a new bull cycle had begun.

Lee identified Wall Street adoption as the central theme of that cycle. While earlier rallies were driven by NFTs and stablecoins, he said the next phase would center on tokenizing assets more broadly and building settlement networks on crypto infrastructure.

Banks’ interest in replacing settlement infrastructure supports that view, he said. Lee described tokenization and the transformation of the financial system as still being in their earliest stages, with banks looking to rebuild settlement networks using crypto technology.

He also described resilience to bad news as a feature of a new bull market. In his assessment, market bottoms can emerge while sentiment remains persistently bearish and price performance begins to improve, rather than waiting for investors to become optimistic.

Lee contrasted that divergence with conditions late in a market cycle. Negative sentiment can coexist with improving business fundamentals, he said, while widespread optimism accompanied by few additional reasons for confidence can signal that a cycle is further advanced.

Whether technology still has scope to improve everyday life was another measure he used to assess a cycle’s maturity. Lee pointed to continuing discoveries and corporate benefits from AI, alongside crypto’s early role in reshaping financial infrastructure, and said adoption across technology, AI and crypto was expanding into 2027.