Ethereum's True Value: A Comparison to Amazon, Says Dragonfly's Qureshi

Haseeb Qureshi, a managing partner at Dragonfly, believes that Ethereum should be valued similarly to Amazon, arguing that critics are misapplying financial frameworks to assess ETH. He insists that, unlike traditional stocks, Ethereum’s fee revenue should be considered pure profits, reshaping how investors view its valuation.

Key Takeaways

Haseeb Qureshi argues that Ethereum should be valued like an early-stage Amazon, not as a traditional mature stock.
He emphasizes that Ethereum’s fee revenue represents profit rather than conventional revenue, as blockchains have no expenses.
During a recent debate, Qureshi countered that sales for Ethereum equate to the GDP of the on-chain economy, not measured like in traditional sectors.
He highlighted that Ethereum's P/S and P/E ratios should be compared to Amazon's historical earnings multiples.
Despite market fluctuations, Qureshi's confidence in Ethereum's long-term prospects remains strong.

Ethereum Should Be Valued Like Amazon, Says Dragonfly’s Qureshi

Understanding Ethereum’s Valuation

On December 9, 2025, during the Milk Road Show, Haseeb Qureshi confidently defended Ethereum’s valuation. He criticized those who claim Ethereum is overpriced, arguing that they use an incorrect financial perspective. According to Qureshi, Ethereum (ETH) should be analyzed more like a nascent Amazon rather than a stable “value” stock.

Revisiting his heated valuation debate with investor Santiago “Santi” Santos, hosted by ThreadGuy, Qureshi reignited discussions on how to appropriately value layer 1 blockchains. At the heart of his argument is a claim that Ethereum's fee revenue is essentially pure profit and should not be categorized as traditional corporate revenue. “Blockchains don’t have revenue. They have profit,” he stated. “When chains charge fees, that’s profit. There are no expenses for a blockchain, right? No AWS hosting costs for Ethereum.”

Valuation Debate: Qureshi vs. Santos

Santos characterized Ethereum as trading at “300 plus” times its sales, describing such price-to-sales (P/S) ratios as “embarrassing” compared to conventional companies. He suggested that these valuations are disproportionately high. Although Qureshi acknowledged the multiples’ size, he challenged the appropriateness of using P/S as a metric. “He insisted the correct way to analyze is price of sales,” Qureshi noted. “Ethereum's P/S is around 380, while Amazon peaked at a P/S of 42 during its bubble.”

Qureshi contended that what investors define as “sales” in a blockchain context is more accurately reflective of the gross domestic product (GDP) or gross merchandise volume (GMV) of the blockchain ecosystem—metrics that aren’t directly tracked at the protocol level. The observable and measurable factor is fee income, which Qureshi equates with net income. “Sales, in a way, are like the GDP of the blockchain which we’re not measuring,” he argued. “The key understanding for a blockchain is its profit… Ethereum's profit compared to that of Amazon is crucial.”

This analogy opens the door for more comparisons between Ethereum and Amazon. Qureshi highlighted that Amazon refrained from generating profit for nearly twenty years to focus on growth, which still led the market to assign it extremely high earnings multiples. “Amazon generated no profit until approximately 20 years into its journey,” he said. “In 2013, Amazon had a P/E ratio exceeding 600, whereas Ethereum’s current P/E ratio is around 380.”

In light of his assumptions that “fees equal profit,” Qureshi argues that investors should assess Ethereum’s multiple—between 300 and 380—against Amazon’s past P/E ratios instead of its significantly lower P/S ratios.

The Greater Context of Blockchain Growth

Qureshi emphasized that Ethereum and other layer 1 blockchains are still in a rapid growth phase, akin to the early days of the internet and e-commerce, rather than resembling stable, dividend-paying late-cycle companies. “This technology has been expanding over time, integrating into the entire finance sector from its origins,” he remarked, referring to his essay “In Defense of Exponentials.” He noted that none of these technologies achieved profitability immediately in the first five or even ten years.

Despite recent volatility and the underperformance of alternative cryptocurrencies compared to AI stocks and gold, Qureshi stated that his belief in Ethereum's long-term viability has become even stronger through the heated debate. “If anything, I have increased my confidence,” he asserted, indicating that there had been no substantial changes in the last few months to warrant a major shift in perspective. “What has changed in the last two months—ETH dropping from $4,800 to approximately $3,000? Nothing material.”

He shared reflections after the debate on his disagreement with claims that “crypto is just a big casino” and further explained his perspective on the broader crypto macro cycle.

Conclusion

For Qureshi, a legitimate reconsideration of Ethereum's value must stem from a clear invalidation of critical assumptions. Such invalidation could arise from major disruptions, like a significant breakthrough in cryptography or a drastic decline in on-chain stablecoin demand. He perceives short-term market fluctuations merely as sentiment cycles around a more stable fundamental basis. His message to skeptics is that if Amazon was accepted at a 600x earnings valuation while it was establishing dominance in its field, discounting Ethereum at approximately 300-380x solely based on a high P/S ratio is inconsistent analysis.

As of the latest information at press time, Ethereum was trading at $3,325.

Ethereum price ETH remains below the 0.618 Fib level on the 1-week chart | Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView.com