Key Takeaways
- Tom Lee says some VCs regret not holding bitcoin, which rose about 80x from below $1,000.
- He favors maximum exposure to bitcoin, ethereum, and solana as Layer 1s capture more value.
- The debate now shifts from chasing startups to whether major networks can keep outperforming active bets.
Crypto VCs Question Startup Bets After Bitcoin’s 80x Decade
Tom Lee is making a blunt case for simplicity in crypto investing.
Speaking at TOKEN2049, the Fundstrat strategist said venture capitalists he recently met in Taiwan told him their startup returns had been acceptable, but still lagged what they could have earned by simply buying and holding bitcoin.
Ten years ago, bitcoin traded below $1,000. Today, it is around $80,000, implying roughly an 80-fold increase.
Lee said that contrast has changed how some long-time investors now think about where the biggest returns in crypto actually come from.
VCs Regret Missing the Simpler Trade
Lee recalled meeting several venture investors he first encountered when he began researching bitcoin a decade ago. He assumed their early-stage portfolios would have dramatically outperformed BTC.
Instead, he said they gave him a very different answer.
“They said that their venture returns have been okay, but they wish they just bought Bitcoin,” Lee said.
That observation cuts against one of the core assumptions of crypto venture investing: that private companies and early-stage tokens should offer significantly higher upside than simply owning the dominant digital asset.
In practice, bitcoin’s long-term return has been difficult for many active strategies to beat.
Lee Says Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana Deserve Maximum Exposure
Lee’s takeaway is not limited to bitcoin.
He said investors should also remain bullish on ethereum and solana, arguing that major Layer 1 blockchains are positioned to capture a large share of the value created during the current cycle.
“You want to have the maximum exposure to bitcoin, ethereum, and even solana in this cycle,” Lee said. “I think the L1s are going to capture a lot of the value.”
That puts his thesis squarely on the largest base-layer crypto networks rather than on narrower venture bets.
The Bigger Question Is Where Value Accrues
The significance lies in the shift in investor behavior.
For years, venture capital was seen as the higher-risk, higher-return route into crypto. Lee’s anecdote suggests that even sophisticated early-stage investors are questioning whether that complexity has actually paid off.
Bitcoin’s roughly 80x rise over the past decade sets an unusually high benchmark.
Ethereum and solana are different assets with different risk profiles, but Lee’s broader argument is that the most durable value may continue to accrue at the Layer 1 level.
For investors, that turns the debate from finding the next obscure winner to asking a simpler question: are the biggest networks still the best place to be?
