Andrew Keys, co-founder and chairman of The Ether Machine, made bold claims on CNBC’s Squawk Box, arguing that Ethereum has significantly outperformed Bitcoin over the past decade. According to Keys, an investor who held ETH since its launch would be “30 times wealthier” compared to someone who held BTC over the same time span.
Originally, Keys said the return would be 50x, but he later corrected that estimate in a post on X, noting it was closer to 30x. He also made his preference clear: “I’m an Ethereum guy. I don’t own Bitcoin. I’d rather have an iPhone than a landline.”
@JoeSquawk @andrewrsorkin @BeckyQuick thanks for having me on @SquawkCNBC today. Here's the evidence of #Ether's outperformance against #Bitcoin over the last decade. It is over 30x from July 21st, 2015. pic.twitter.com/SlEuaxe9ZC
— Andrew Keys (@AK_EtherMachine) July 21, 2025
The Ether Machine, a new institutional investment vehicle focused on Ethereum, plans to go public with over 400,000 ETH on its balance sheet — a sum currently valued at $1.5 billion. This would make it the largest publicly-held Ethereum treasury, ahead of Bitmine and SharpLink, which hold 300,000 and 280,000 ETH, respectively.
Keys on Ethereum’s edge
Keys explained that Ethereum’s dominance isn’t limited to price appreciation. He pointed to Ethereum’s growing role in tokenized assets and stablecoins, highlighting the GENIUS Act as a catalyst. “The largest beneficiary of the GENIUS Act is Ethereum,” Keys said, noting that over 90% of tokenized assets and stablecoins are deployed on the Ethereum network. He compared it to the early internet era: “Ethereum is experiencing power law dynamics, just like Google — where 90% of searches happen with Google, 90% of tokenized assets are on Ethereum.”
While the numbers are impressive, some analysts argue that comparing ETH and BTC returns over different timelines creates a flawed comparison. Bitcoin was created in 2009 and traded as low as $0.0041 in 2010, eventually reaching over $70,000. Ethereum launched in 2015, when BTC was already at $280. ETH started at around $1.60 and has since appreciated by over 236,000%.