Tom Lee believes that Ethereum treasury companies will push ETH above $10,000 in the next 12 months

BitMine Chairman Tom Lee believes that the next major upward trend for Ethereum will come from the continuous buying by treasury companies. He stated that enterprises that have listed ETH on their balance sheets currently hold about 7% of the total Ethereum supply, and he expects this proportion to roughly double to 15% during this bull market.

When asked about Arthur Hayes's judgment that by the end of 2026, ETH would rise to $10,000, Lee stated that he would not be surprised by this and added that he expects the trading price of ETH to be "well above" $10,000 in the next 12 months.

15% supply squeeze

The logical core of Lee is the digital asset vault company (DAT). Such listed companies purchase and hold crypto assets through financing. He stated that Ethereum (DAT) currently holds a proportion of its corresponding token supply that is higher than the holding ratio of Bitcoin or Solana's DAT to their respective tokens.

Lee divides such companies into two groups:

• Net asset value (NAV) discount trading: The stock price of such companies is lower than the value of their held crypto assets; therefore, buying their stocks is essentially equivalent to purchasing ETH at a discount.
• Net asset value premium trading: Such companies can issue new shares, use the funds raised to buy more crypto assets, and continue to draw tokens from the market.

Lee It is expected that during a bull market, most DAT will trade at levels higher than NAV. This will enable them to continue buying and reduce the circulating supply available to other participants. Taking Hyperliquid as an example, he mentioned that a single vault company holds approximately 14% of the HYPE supply and is still continuing to buy.

BitMine Holding breaks through 6 million coins ETH

Lee indicates that BitMine currently holds over 6 million ETH, which is close to 5% of the total supply. It took 15 months to build up this position, with most of it being acquired during what he referred to as the bear market period. The company has not stated whether they will stop buying after reaching 5%.

Lee lists three priorities for BitMine:

• Maintain the highest possible ETH exposure. He pointed out that Ethereum has risen 50 to 200 times in the past few cycles. If it rises 25 times from the current level, the ETH price will approach $62,000.
• Stock repurchase. BitMine completed a stock repurchase of $350 million in July, involving 21 million shares. Lee stated that this was the largest repurchase in the crypto industry. He mentioned that the stock price had hit its bottom at that time and almost doubled within a month.
• Pursuing “moonshot-level” opportunities. He hopes to leverage the company’s balance sheet to capitalize on opportunities in the fields of tokenization, artificial intelligence, and computing power.

Institutions still have under-specified configurations.

Lee indicates that most institutional investors still do not hold any crypto assets at all. Although advisory firms now recommend a allocation of 2% to 10%, he estimates that the actual holdings of institutions within the coverage of Fundstrat are only 2% to 5%. He pointed out that Ethereum rose by about 65% in the third quarter, while the S&P 500 index remained relatively flat; he expects funds to flow into the crypto market in the fourth quarter.

Ethereum's Dominant Position in the Tokenization Field

Lee denied the claim that Ethereum is being overtaken by faster blockchains. He stated that approximately 99% of the tokenization projects from companies such as JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock are running on Ethereum. He described tokenization as the main way for banks to increase profits in the coming years, as financial services account for about half of the total economy.

He also stated that the previous complaints from the outside world regarding Ethereum's speed and usability have been largely resolved. A shorter block generation time, as well as an Ethereum Foundation that now places more emphasis on commercialization after the reorganization, are part of these changes.

The content of this article reflects the author's views and opinions on the current market situation.