Crazy accumulation of 3.86 million ETH: What is the investment logic of the “unwavering bull” Tom Lee?

From Tom Lee's various interviews, we can roughly see his core logic for being bullish on Ethereum in the long term:

1. Ethereum is the core settlement layer for the future of finance.

ETH is not only a digital currency, but also the infrastructure for building and running DeFi, stablecoins, NFTs, on-chain markets, RWA, etc. Especially in terms of RWA, this will be the biggest narrative in the future. Wall Street is putting trillions of dollars worth of assets (bonds/stocks, etc.) on-chain to Ethereum. As the dominant settlement layer, Ethereum will generate massive demand and drive up the value of ETH. Tokenization is not a short-term hype, but a structural shift that will drive an ETH bull market independent of BTC.

2. Institutional adoption and ecosystem maturity.

Currently, there are about 4 million BTC wallets worldwide holding more than $10,000 in assets, while globally there are nearly 900 million stock/pension accounts holding similar amounts—a gap of more than 200 times. In comparison, crypto adoption is still in its early stages; Ethereum has the strongest developer community; the Ethereum network operates most robustly.

In addition, unlike BTC, ETH has actual utility, such as staking yields, DeFi, etc., making it more suitable for institutions to hold long-term.

3. Non-consensus opportunities.

Tom Lee has always favored "non-consensus" investments (he made 100x on telecom stocks in the 90s when he was young). Currently, many OGs (early players) feel crypto is "boring" and are turning to AI or stocks, but this is precisely because they have matured, while the industry is still in its infancy—a new wave of investors is about to flood in.

4. Not just talk, but action as well.

BitMine (BMNR) is the world's largest ETH treasury company, Tom Lee is its chairman, and BitMine already holds about 3.86 million ETH (about 3.2% of total supply), with a target of reaching 5%. In December 2025, BitMine will continue to buy large amounts of ETH (even if the price fluctuates), and has $1 billion in cash reserves + staking yields.

(Note: Actually, 3.2% is already a lot, 5% is a bit much.)

Tom Lee's price prediction section (this part does not need to be taken too seriously, after all, price prediction is a matter for God)

• The most "crazy" long-term target: If the ETH/BTC ratio returns to 0.25, ETH could reach $62,000 (extreme scenario, based on a supercycle).

• A more realistic 2026 target: $7,000–$9,000 (2026), or even $20,000 (if tokenization explodes).

• He believes ETH will have bottomed by the end of 2025/early 2026, there may be short-term volatility, but 2026 will be a "big year" for L1 chains (especially ETH).