From Tom Lee's numerous interviews, we can roughly discern his core logic for being bullish on Ethereum in the long term:
1. Ethereum is the core settlement layer of the future financial infrastructure.
Ethereum (ETH) is not only a cryptocurrency, but also the infrastructure for building and running DeFi, stablecoins, NFTs, on-chain markets, RWAs, and more. Especially in the RWA sector, this will be the biggest narrative of the future. Wall Street is putting trillions of dollars worth of assets (bonds/stocks, etc.) onto Ethereum, and as the dominant settlement layer, Ethereum will generate massive demand, driving up the value of ETH. Tokenization is not a short-term hype, but a structural shift that will drive a bull market for ETH independent of Bitcoin.
2. Institutional adoption and mature ecosystem.
Currently, approximately 4 million Bitcoin wallets worldwide hold assets exceeding $10,000, while nearly 900 million stock/pension accounts globally hold similar amounts—a difference of over 200 times. In comparison, crypto adoption is still in its early stages; Ethereum boasts the strongest developer community; and the Ethereum network operates with the most robust performance.
In addition, unlike BTC, ETH has practical utility, such as staking rewards and DeFi, which makes it more suitable for institutions to hold for the long term.
3. Non-consensus opportunities.
Tom Lee has always favored "non-consensus" investing (he made 100x on telecom stocks in the 90s when he was young). Many OGs (early adopters) are now finding crypto "boring" and moving on to AI or stocks, but this is precisely because they have matured while the industry is still in its infancy—a new wave of investors is about to flood in.
4. It's not just about talking without doing; it's about both talking and doing.
BitMine (BMNR) is the world's largest ETH treasury company, chaired by Tom Lee. BitMine currently holds approximately 3.86 million ETH (about 3.2% of the total supply) and aims to reach 5%. In December 2025, BitMine continued to buy large amounts of ETH (even with price fluctuations) and has $1 billion in cash reserves plus staking rewards.
(Note: Actually, 3.2% is already quite a lot, and 5% is a bit too much.)
Tom Lee's price prediction section (Don't take this part too seriously, after all, price prediction is God's business).
• The most “crazy” long-term target: If the ETH/BTC ratio returns to 0.25, ETH could reach $62,000 (extreme scenario, based on a supercycle).
• More realistic 2026 targets: $7,000–$9,000 (2026), or even $20,000 (provided that tokenization takes off).
He believes that ETH will have bottomed out by the end of 2025/early 2026, and there may be short-term fluctuations, but 2026 will be a "big year" for L1 chains (especially ETH).
