"Wall Street's Oracle" Tom Lee Turns Bullish on ETH: Why He's Firmly Optimistic About Ethereum and Its Treasury Strategy?
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"Wall Street's Oracle" Tom Lee Turns Bullish on ETH: Why He's Firmly Optimistic About Ethereum and Its Treasury Strategy?
Recently, Tom Lee was appointed chairman of the board at mining company Bitmine and participated in the company's launch of a $250 million Ethereum treasury strategy.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Weilin, PANews
In Wall Street circles, Tom Lee is known as the "Oracle of Wall Street," gaining widespread attention for his accurate market forecasts and deep insights into tech stocks and assets like Bitcoin. As founder of research firm Fundstrat, he is both a prominent traditional market analyst and a steadfast supporter of digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Recently, Lee was appointed Chairman of the Board at mining company Bitmine, where he has helped launch a $250 million Ethereum treasury strategy that has drawn significant market interest. In a recent interview, Tom Lee boldly predicted that Ethereum will rise to $10,000 in this current market cycle.
Bitmine Announces $250 Million Ethereum Treasury Strategy, Appoints Tom Lee as Chairman
Mining company Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) recently announced a $250 million private placement initiative aimed at funding its Ethereum treasury strategy—a move similar to MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin treasury approach.
On July 3, Bitmine's stock surged over 1,000%, sparking intense discussion and speculation among investors. The fundraising round was led by MOZAYYX and backed by several active players in today’s crypto investment landscape, including Founders Fund, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Pantera, Republic Digital, and DCG.
Concurrently, Bitmine announced the appointment of Tom Lee as Chairman of the Board. Lee, founder of Fundstrat and a long-time advocate of cryptocurrencies, earned a loyal following on Wall Street through his early conviction in Bitcoin and technology stocks.
While the sharp rise in share price has attracted broad attention, it also comes with warnings. Analysts note that while treasury strategies can be powerful narrative drivers, they also introduce new volatility risks. Bitmine’s future will be closely tied to Ethereum’s performance—an arena where sentiment can shift rapidly. For investors bullish on Ethereum’s long-term utility, direct investment may offer a simpler and less volatile alternative.
Tom Lee: “Stablecoins Will Drive Exponential Growth in Ethereum Transaction Fees”
In a recent interview, Tom Lee explained his enthusiasm for Ethereum, highlighting its programmable smart contract blockchain and, more importantly, the rise of stablecoins. He cited Circle—the recently popular publicly listed stablecoin issuer valued at $9 billion—as a prime example. “Circle is like the best IPO in five years, trading at 100x EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization], delivering exceptional returns for funds and helping them break into the top 1%. From a traditional Wall Street perspective, Circle is god-tier stock. Stablecoins are like ChatGPT for crypto—they’ve broken into the mainstream,” he said.
Lee pointed out that this demonstrates how Wall Street is attempting to give tokenized assets equity-like characteristics, while the crypto world is tokenizing equities—by tokenizing the U.S. dollar. He noted that institutions like JPMorgan are now launching their own stablecoins, with Amazon, Walmart, and Goldman Sachs also showing strong interest. “Stablecoins represent a powerful business model, highly efficient for consumers and merchants alike. But they must run on blockchains—and most stablecoin transactions occur on Ethereum,” he added.
“Ethereum was once overlooked. Currently, the total stablecoin market stands at just $250 billion, already accounting for 30% of Ethereum’s transaction fees, and Ethereum generates over 50% of all stablecoins annually. Treasury Secretary Scott is a big fan of stablecoins—he believes this could become a $2 trillion market, a tenfold increase. The U.S. government wants more stablecoins because collectively, they’re now the 12th-largest holder of U.S. Treasuries. If stablecoin issuance grows tenfold, Ethereum’s transaction fees will grow exponentially,” Lee stated.
He further emphasized that Ethereum stands to be the direct beneficiary of Wall Street’s effort to imbue crypto with equity-like traits.
Treasury Strategy vs. Direct Ethereum Purchase: What Are the Advantages?
Addressing the so-called “Tom Lee effect” behind BMNR’s stock surge, Lee asked: “If I want to invest in Ethereum, why not just buy an ETF? Or purchase it directly on-chain and custody it? But treasury companies actually offer five crucial advantages.”
“When you buy an ETF or hold Ethereum on-chain, your holdings remain fixed in quantity. With ETFs, fees might even erode your exposure over time. But treasury companies aim to increase tokens per share—their key performance metric, just like MicroStrategy’s benchmark. First, if a company trades above its net asset value (NAV), it can issue shares to create more NAV per share. This is what we call reflexive growth. In equities, very few things exhibit this kind of self-reinforcing expansion.”
Second, he explained, the underlying token is highly volatile—Ethereum’s volatility is twice that of Bitcoin. If an investor holds Ethereum ETFs and wants leverage, banks may charge 10%. But within a treasury asset company, capital costs are lower, and volatility can be monetized via convertible bonds or derivatives. In MicroStrategy’s case, the cost of capital is effectively zero, enabling two levers to be pulled simultaneously.
Third, there’s potential arbitrage between market price and NAV. When investors hold equity and other treasury firms trade at NAV, a company trading at three times NAV can acquire others at a discount—essentially creating a merger arbitrage opportunity.
Fourth, you can build an operating business. For example, one could launch a service supporting the DeFi ecosystem, such as Ethereum staking loans. While uncommon in Bitcoin, this is a major advantage in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Fifth, you can create what I call structural put options. Take MicroStrategy, which owns 600,000 Bitcoins. If the U.S. government, UAE, or UK wanted to acquire 1 million BTC, someone might say, ‘I’ll buy MicroStrategy—it already holds 600,000.’ Paying a 200% premium could still be cheaper than buying 1 million BTC outright. That’s a sovereign put option.
In Ethereum’s case, since it’s a staked token, treasury companies holding 5% of the supply become critical to the ecosystem. Their market cap should rise accordingly. If Goldman Sachs launches a dollar-denominated token on Ethereum, they’ll need to secure the network—likely by buying large amounts of ETH. But these treasury entities already hold it. So perhaps they’d only need to buy rights to those entities. Thus, staking entities gain a de facto put option from Wall Street—a logically sound proposition.
Early Career: Wall Street’s First Major Strategist to Deliver Formal Bitcoin Research to Clients
Tracing Tom Lee’s personal journey, his full name is Thomas Jong Lee, born to Korean immigrant parents. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in finance and accounting. A CFA charterholder, he is also an active member of the New York CFA Society and the Economic Club of New York.
Lee began his career in the early 1990s, working at Kidder, Peabody & Company and Salomon Smith Barney. In 1999, he joined J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. as Chief Equity Strategist. His research during this period drew criticism—most notably in 2002 when public company Nextel challenged his analysis, attracting national media coverage and making headlines in The Wall Street Journal. In 2014, Lee left J.P. Morgan to found his own research and advisory firm, Fundstrat Global Advisors, where he serves as Head of Research, while also advising NewEdge Wealth, a Connecticut-based wealth management firm.
Lee was the first major Wall Street strategist to provide formal Bitcoin research to institutional clients—a move that garnered significant media attention at the time. He is renowned for his deep market insights and accurate long-term predictions, covering areas such as S&P 500 forecasts, market rebounds, and commentary on specific stocks like MicroStrategy and Tesla. He has also analyzed the impact of inflation and Federal Reserve policy on financial markets.
Most recently, he forecasted a 10% rise in the S&P 500 by 2025, noting that while the current market rally is positive, it still lacks broad investor confidence. Though criticized for his optimistic outlook, Lee’s supporters praise his institutional-grade perspective and profound understanding of market trends.
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