One Wall Avenue voice is telling Bitcoin (BTC 0.50%) holders that its worth will finish the yr close to $250,000, and Ethereum (ETH 1.18%) holders that its worth might be within the ballpark of $12,000. From in the present day’s costs for these property, close to $63,000 and $1,800 respectively, that is a bit exhausting to consider.
That voice is Tom Lee, Fundstrat co-founder, former J.P. Morgan chief fairness strategist, and, since June 2025, chairman of BitMine Immersion Applied sciences, the proprietor of the most important company Ethereum treasury. Let’s dig into his predictions about these two cash and assess whether or not they’re possible to come true.
Picture supply: Getty Pictures.
Bitcoin in all probability will not hit the goal
Lee final reiterated his 2026 worth goal of $200,000 to $250,000 per Bitcoin on CNBC in January. He argued that the four-year halving cycle that governs the coin’s worth is breaking down, and that spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) demand is now the dominant determinant of its worth.
His rationale is that October 2025’s flash crash, which coincided with Bitcoin’s most up-to-date all-time excessive of round $126,000, reset the market’s positioning, and likewise {that a} bull run for gold (like what’s occurred over the past couple of years) has traditionally been a phenomenon that preceded large Bitcoin development. Lee’s place in August 2025 was for Bitcoin to be above $200,000 by the tip of the yr, however that did not occur.
Right now’s Change
(-0.50%) $-328.27
Present Value
$65,754.00
Key Knowledge Factors
Market Cap
Day’s Vary
$65709.00 – $66840.00
52wk Vary
$57945.16 – $126079.89
Quantity
31.8B
Many of the institutional estimates for Bitcoin’s worth are rather a lot nearer to in the present day’s costs than to these ceilings. Commonplace Chartered has lower its 2026 Bitcoin goal from $300,000 to $100,000 throughout two revisions since December, citing weaker company shopping for and outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs. Extra troubling for Lee, Fundstrat’s personal inner 2026 outlook, written by strategist Sean Farrell, coached its purchasers to count on a pullback to the $60,000 space, which has largely performed out.
Ethereum is not about to multiply in worth both
Evangelizing a excessive worth goal for Ether whereas managing its largest institutional Ether purchase program is not an accident.
Lee’s Ethereum worth goal is nuanced in that it is calibrated into a number of potential tiers, that are primarily based on the ETH-to-BTC ratio.
His $12,000 flooring assumes Ether returning to its eight-year common ratio towards Bitcoin at his $250,000 BTC goal. The $22,000 goal, in distinction, assumes the ETH/BTC ratios seen through the peak of the 2021 bull market‘s ranges. The very best (and most unrealistic) goal of $62,000 within the close to time period assumes a ratio to Bitcoin that the token has by no means approached below any circumstances.
Right now’s Change
(-1.18%) $-22.91
Present Value
$1,911.24
Key Knowledge Factors
Market Cap
Day’s Vary
$1911.98 – $1946.42
52wk Vary
$1512.07 – $4946.05
Quantity
11B
At a Paris convention in June, Lee additionally proposed $250,000 per Ether over the long run, pushed by large tokenization inflows of real-world property like shares and bonds, and by synthetic intelligence brokers dealing with their workloads on Ethereum.
Nonetheless, there are a few issues with Lee’s worth targets. Ethereum at $62,000 per coin implies a $7.5 trillion market cap, and traditionally, solely international reserve currencies can obtain such market caps. Even the $12,000 goal is problematic, each on account of the market cap it’d require, and since it assumes an improbably excessive worth for Bitcoin occurring on the identical time.
Lee’s day job at BitMine, in the meantime, is shopping for Ethereum at an industrial scale. The corporate already holds shut to 5% of circulating provide, so the general public goal and the company purchase program feed one another’s flywheel.
For most individuals, probably the most salient near-term goal is Ethereum reclaiming its August 2025 all-time excessive of about $4,950. That in all probability will not occur this yr, but when a crypto bull market returns and the macro backdrop turns into barely extra permissive, it could be potential in 2027.
