Fundstrat’s Tom Lee says crypto is more relevant in the AI era, endorsing BlackRock’s bullish Bitcoin case

Fundstrat’s chief research officer Tom Lee said cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin in particular, is becoming “more relevant” as investment narratives shift toward the AI era. Speaking in a market-focused interview covered by Yahoo Finance, Lee argued that Bitcoin’s role in a diversified portfolio should be evaluated through a longer time horizon rather than short-term price volatility.

The comment aligns with a recent BlackRock analysis that Lee highlighted in his argument. According to the report as summarized in the same coverage, BlackRock’s latest 10-year study concluded that an allocation of roughly 1% to 2% to Bitcoin within a traditional 60/40 portfolio (60% equities, 40% bonds) would have improved risk-adjusted returns versus the portfolio without Bitcoin.

Lee’s broader framing is that AI-driven changes in computing, energy demand, and capital markets could reshape investor behavior and the ways new asset classes are incorporated. In that view, crypto is not only a speculative instrument but also an alternative exposure that may matter more for portfolio construction as capital rotates and narratives develop.

BlackRock is one of the world’s largest asset managers and has spent recent years trying to move the debate about digital assets from sentiment to portfolio mechanics. The use of a 10-year study is notable because it attempts to connect the timing of Bitcoin’s market cycles and drawdowns to a measurable performance objective that investors often use when weighing assets, namely risk-adjusted return.

Market participants typically interpret “risk-adjusted” language as referring to performance after accounting for the amount of risk taken. In practice, that can be difficult to compare across studies because assumptions about rebalancing, fees, and how returns are modeled can vary. The coverage tied Lee’s endorsement to BlackRock’s conclusion that a small Bitcoin allocation could have enhanced the profile of a conventional benchmark.

While Lee’s remarks support BlackRock’s bullish Bitcoin interpretation, the coverage did not lay out additional specifics such as the exact assumptions behind the study, the statistical methods used, or how sensitive the result is to different time windows. It also did not say whether the analysis presumes investors hold Bitcoin directly or via a specific vehicle.

From a sector perspective, the renewed attention to crypto inside mainstream asset allocation debates reflects a broader push by major managers to address digital assets as part of institutional portfolio frameworks. Even when firms do not promise returns, their willingness to run multi-year backtests can influence how advisors and institutional allocators think about constraints like risk limits and diversification targets.

Investors and analysts are likely to keep watching how these studies are received in practice, particularly whether similar findings show up across different modeling choices and different market regimes. The next proof point will not be a headline number, but whether portfolio outcomes hold up when real-world implementation costs, tax treatment, and custody or fund-structure details are accounted for. For now, the public discussion is centered on the idea that modest Bitcoin exposure can improve traditional portfolio metrics, as reflected in BlackRock’s 10-year research and Lee’s endorsement.