Banks Will Trade Like Tech Stocks as AI and Blockchain Reshape Industry

Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc. (BMNR), said big banks should be valued like tech companies due to AI and blockchain's transformative impact on the industry.

In a panel discussion at the Future Proof conference, Lee stated that financial firms are not designed to deal with robots making tiny payments facilitated by AI agents, increasing the risk of fraud. He noted that firms cannot easily check who is sending those instructions.

Lee believes that much of new financial infrastructure will be built on blockchains, which makes crypto a 'huge winner' eventually. The best financial firms will turn into tech stocks, and their price-to-earnings multiples should rise accordingly, he said.

Wedbush's Dan Ives, who was also present on the panel, called the AI infrastructure buildout a 'two-horse race' between the U.S. and China. He pointed to utility and energy firms as among the biggest winners in this space.