James Wo, founder and CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm DFG, says bitcoin remains the dominant institutional asset in cryptocurrencies, and ether is unlikely to reach the same status anytime soon.
Speaking to CoinDesk at the Proof of Talk conference in Paris, Wo rejected Bitmine Immersion Technologies president Tom Lee’s big prediction that ether would reach $250,000, arguing that Ethereum lacks the same consensus and institutional recognition that has formed around bitcoin.
“I totally disagree with him,” Wo said.
“Bitcoin has a very strong consensus. If you talk to everyone who was an early backer… they believe in bitcoin. Now, beyond the initial support of bitcoin, all the people in crypto, and also people in traditional finance, are trying to recognize bitcoin as a safe haven or an asset class. I don’t think Ethereum is there yet.”
Ether was trading around $1,775 at the time of writing, while bitcoin was near $63,000.
Wo argued that the fundamental valuation of ether remains largely dependent on the localized application layer that runs directly on top of the network to capture the fee value. Now that modern Layer 2 networks divert transaction volume and capture fee utility independently, Wo explains that network value accumulation has been structurally different.
“The value of ether has become more diversified or decentralized,” Wo noted.
“The Ethereum token as a whole is not going to capture much value. On-chain activity is not as big as people expected… I don’t think Ethereum will reach an all-time high. I think Bitcoin will do well, but not Ethereum,” he said.
However, not everyone agrees that Ethereum’s value accumulation problem is permanent.
In February, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reignited debate within the community after suggesting that Layer 2 networks, long seen as the primary scaling solution, may “no longer make sense” as Ethereum becomes faster and cheaper. The discussion reflects broader questions about whether future upgrades could allow more economic activity to build directly into Ethereum’s base layer.
‘What is bitcoin?’
Wo’s opinion, however, reflects the perspective of an investor who has spent more than a decade deploying capital into digital assets, starting with bitcoin.
After studying mathematics in college, Wo began watching his peers trade bitcoins during the bear market of 2014. He later entered the sector with $20 million in seed money from his mother, who, at the time, ran an established company and private equity firm in China.
“At first, I don’t think she trusted me,” Wo recalled. “What is bitcoin? She has no idea.” But she gave him the money anyway and said, “It’s okay, I’ll support you anyway.”
It deployed that initial capital into bitcoin during the market lows of late 2014 and 2015. As the 2016 bull market developed, it diversified DFG’s balance sheet into alternative Layer 1 protocols, becoming an early venture participant in ecosystems like Solana, Polkadot, and Near.
He also led early-stage corporate investments in consumer applications and Web3 infrastructure, including an initial allocation of $10 million to Circle’s USDC stablecoin project in January 2018.
Those investments helped transform DFG from a bitcoin-focused investment vehicle to one of the largest venture investors in cryptocurrencies. The firm currently manages over 100 portfolio entities with over $1 billion in total assets under management.
Bitcoin’s new all-time high
While Wo remains cautious on ether, his multi-year outlook for bitcoin is constructive. It frames the asset as a superior liquid investment compared to regional real estate markets and traditional stock markets.
“I firmly believe this is going to outperform the Chinese stock market and also the U.S. stock market,” Wo said. “Bitcoin in any aspect you can imagine from an investment angle: the liquidity is the best in the world.”
Wo expects that Bitcoin could undergo a short-term correction before reaching new highs later in the cycle.
“If it goes down 50% as a correction… the bottom should be between $60,000 and $62,000,” Wo calculated, adding that only an extreme geopolitical black swan event would push the asset lower.
Looking further ahead, expect Bitcoin to hit new records in the coming years.
“At the peak, we have something like $125,000… I think we’ll see an all-time high in 2027 or 2028.”
