Tom Lee’s Ethereum Year-End Call Is Now Half Of What He Called ‘Conservative’ Last Month, But He Expects ‘Monster Moves’ In The Crypto Industry

• BitMine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee said Ethereum should top $5,000 by year-end, in Singapore on Friday.
• That was half the $10,000 year-end figure Lee called "conservative" when he also said Ethereum would trade "much higher" than that level within 12 months.
• His cycle target came down too, to "25,000 or 50,000 per token" from an illustrative $62,000 nine days earlier.

Ethereum (ETH) held above $2,400 on Saturday after BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) chairman Tom Lee said the token should top $5,000 by year-end, half the level he called a “conservative target” more than a week ago.

Speaking at Token 2049 in Singapore on Friday, Lee, who is also co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat, tied the call to Bitcoin (BTC). If Bitcoin climbs to $100,000, he said, Ethereum should trade around $7,500. That was a step down from what he called FLOP Labs’ CEO Arthur Hayes’ $10,000 year-end prediction for Ethereum “conservative,” last month.

Then, with Ethereum near $2,670, he said the token would see “much higher prices than 10,000” within 12 months. To support his point, Lee said, “Think Arthur's conservative in the sense that you know in the past cycles Ethereum has gone up 50 times to 200 times.”

On Friday, the cycle number was lower too. Ethereum “could easily be 25,000 or 50,000 per token,” he said. 

Still Calling It Undervalued

Lee called the token “massively undervalued,” pointing to years of sideways trading. The longer the base, he said, the bigger the breakout. The market, however, shows something different. Bitcoin’s (BTC) dominance has risen to about 57.5%, while Ethereum’s sat near 10.5%.

Ethereum’s price traded relatively flat over the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Ethereum remained in the ‘bearish’ zone, with chatter at ‘normal’ levels over the last day.

Why This Cycle Is Different

Lee argued this cycle will outrun past ones because of who was buying. Earlier rallies ran on retail money, first through initial coin offerings and later through non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This time, he said, institutions were building real products on blockchains. Investors “aren’t bullish enough,” he said, and should expect “some monster moves in crypto prices.”

Why BitMine Bets On Ethereum

Lee pointed to Ethereum’s developer base and its record without downtime. He also warned large banks that ignore crypto. He said firms that fail to build a crypto strategy risk becoming "the National Cash Register (NCRs) and the Microwave Communications, Inc. (MCIs) of this era," referring to two companies he said missed major technology shifts. 

BMNR stock closed little changed on Friday. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BMNR remained in the ‘bearish’ zone, with chatter at ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

Read also: AAVE Jumps After Citrini Research Bets On DeFi Tokens’ $157T Tokenization Opportunity

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