Why Tom Lee Thinks Ethereum Treasury Firms Will Push ETH Past $10,000 In The Next 12 Months

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine, thinks the next big move in Ethereum will come from treasury companies buying it up. He says firms that hold ETH on their balance sheets already own about 7% of its total supply, and he expects that share to roughly double to 15% during this bull cycle.

Lee was asked about Arthur Hayes’s call for $10,000 ETH by the end of 2026. He said he would not be surprised, and added that he expects ETH to trade “much higher” than $10,000 within the next 12 months.

The 15% Supply Squeeze

Lee’s case centres on digital asset treasury companies (DATs), the listed firms that raise money to buy and hold crypto. He says Ethereum DATs already own more of their token’s supply than Bitcoin or Solana DATs own of theirs.

Lee splits these companies into two groups:

• Trading below net asset value (NAV): The shares cost less than the crypto the company holds, so buying them is effectively buying ETH at a discount.
• Trading above NAV: The company can sell new shares, use the money to buy more crypto, and keep pulling tokens off the market.

Lee expects most DATs to trade above NAV in a bull market. That would let them keep buying and shrink the supply available to everyone else. He pointed to Hyperliquid as an example, saying a single treasury company owns about 14% of HYPE’s supply and is still buying.

BitMine Crosses 6 Million ETH

Lee said BitMine now holds more than 6 million ETH, close to 5% of the total supply. It took 15 months to build that position, most of it during what he called a bear market. The company has not said whether it will stop buying once it reaches 5%.

Lee listed three priorities for BitMine:

• Keep maximum ETH exposure. He noted that Ethereum has risen 50 to 200 times in past cycles. A 25-fold rise from current levels would put ETH near $62,000.
• Buy back shares. BitMine completed a $350 million buyback of 21 million shares in July, which Lee called the largest in the crypto industry. He said the stock bottomed then and nearly doubled within a month.
• Pursue “moonshots.” He wants to use the company’s balance sheet for opportunities in tokenization, AI and computing.

Institutions Are Still Underweight

Lee said most institutional investors still hold no crypto at all. Advisory firms now recommend allocations of 2% to 10%, but he estimated that institutions in Fundstrat’s coverage hold only 2% to 5%. He pointed out that Ethereum rose about 65% in the third quarter while the S&P 500 was roughly flat, and he expects money to rotate into crypto in the fourth quarter.

Ethereum’s Grip On Tokenization

Lee dismissed the idea that Ethereum is losing ground to faster blockchains. He said about 99% of tokenization projects from firms such as JPMorgan and BlackRock run on Ethereum. He described tokenization as the main way banks will grow profits in the coming years, because financial services make up roughly half of the economy.

He also said earlier complaints about Ethereum’s speed and ease of use have largely been fixed. Shorter block times and a more business-focused Ethereum Foundation after its restructuring are part of that change.