Mechanism partner rebuts Tom Lee in a long article: The bullish argument for ETH is the most stupid financial illiterate argument in recent times

Mechanism Capital partner Andrew Kang published a post refuting Tom Lee's bullish thesis on ETH, calling it "idiotic" and the most financially illiterate he's seen recently. Andrew Kang refuted several of Lee's bullish arguments for ETH: - Stablecoin and RWA adoption. Kang argues that Ethereum network upgrades have improved transaction efficiency, and stablecoin and tokenization activity is also flowing to other public chains. The fees incurred by tokenizing low-liquidity assets are negligible (a $100 million bond traded once every two years only incurs a fee of approximately $0.1). - The digital oil analogy is fallacious. Kang argues that oil is a commodity, and its real price, adjusted for inflation, has remained within the same range for a century. Treating ETH as a commodity is not a bullish argument. - The institutional pledge capital theory. Kang argues that major banks do not hold ETH on their balance sheets and have not announced plans to do so. Banks do not stockpile gasoline due to ongoing energy consumption needs; they purchase it on demand when demand is negligible. Banks also do not invest in the custodians they use. The theory that ETH is equivalent to the total value of financial infrastructure companies. Kang believes this is a complete misunderstanding and delusion of the value accumulation mechanism. Technical analysis. Kang believes that objectively speaking, Ethereum has been in a multi-year range-bound trading range. After recently hitting the top of the range and failing to break through resistance, the technical analysis is actually bearish. The long-term ETH/BTC chart, while range-bound, has been primarily downward in recent years, and fundamentals do not support valuation growth. Ethereum's valuation is primarily due to a lack of financial literacy—much like XRP—but this valuation is not infinite. While macro liquidity supports ETH's market capitalization, without significant changes, its underperformance will continue.