Reimagining Ethereum’s Valuation: An Amazonian Perspective
In a provocative challenge to conventional financial analysis, Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly, asserts that Ethereum’s valuation demands a paradigm shift. Qureshi contends that critics apply an inappropriate framework, advocating for an assessment akin to an early-stage Amazon rather than a mature, dividend-paying enterprise.
This nuanced perspective emerged during a December 9, 2025, appearance on the Milk Road Show, where Qureshi elaborated on his viral valuation debate with investor Santiago “Santi” Santos. At the heart of his argument lies a fundamental redefinition of blockchain economics.
Blockchain Economics: Fees as Pure Profit
Qureshi’s core thesis reframes how fee revenue on decentralized networks should be interpreted. He posits that transaction fees generated by a blockchain are not merely “revenue” in the traditional corporate sense but rather represent pure profit.
“Blockchains don’t have revenue. They have profit. When chains charge fees, that’s profit. There’s no expenses for a chain. Chains don’t pay expenses, right? There’s no AWS hosting cost for Ethereum.”
This distinction is crucial, as it eliminates the concept of operational overhead for the protocol itself, presenting fee income as a direct measure of the network’s profitability.
Debunking Overvaluation Claims
The debate ignited when Santos highlighted Ethereum’s price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, reportedly exceeding 300, labeling such multiples as “embarrassing” and indicative of an overheated market. Qureshi, while acknowledging the magnitude of these figures, firmly rejected the P/S ratio as the appropriate lens for analysis.
The Misapplication of Traditional Metrics
Qureshi argued that applying a traditional P/S ratio to a blockchain fundamentally misunderstands its underlying economic structure. He clarified:
- For a blockchain, what equity investors conventionally term “sales” more accurately aligns with the Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the on-chain economy.
- This broader economic activity is not directly captured or measured at the protocol level.
- Consequently, the only clear, observable financial metric at the protocol layer is fee income, which, under his framework, directly translates to net income or profit.
This reinterpretation leads to the convergence of P/S and P/E ratios for Ethereum, as fees are considered both the “sales” and the “profit” of the network.
The Amazon Analogy: A Blueprint for Growth
To illustrate his point, Qureshi drew a compelling parallel to Amazon’s early trajectory. Amazon famously prioritized aggressive growth and market capture over immediate profitability for nearly two decades, yet public markets consistently assigned it extremely high earnings multiples.
- Amazon operated with negligible profit for approximately 20 years.
- In 2013, Amazon’s P/E ratio surpassed 600, despite its limited earnings at the time.
- By contrast, Ethereum’s effective P/E ratio, using Qureshi’s “fees as profit” assumption, currently stands around 380.
Qureshi’s assertion is that if markets tolerated Amazon’s
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