Can Ethereum Really Hit $62K? What Wall Street Is Actually Saying About ETH's Path to 1900% Gains

The Setup: Ethereum’s Current Reality

Ethereum (ETH) is sitting around $2.98K right now—down a brutal 40% from its all-time high of $4.95K earlier this year. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is trading near $88.99K. But here’s the thing: despite the pullback, a top Wall Street strategist just threw out a number that’s got the crypto world buzzing.

Tom Lee from Fundstrat is calling for Ethereum to hit $62,000 by mid-2026. Yes, you read that right. That would mean roughly a 1900% surge from current levels in less than 18 months.

Why Now? The DeFi Dominance Argument

So what’s the basis for such an ambitious forecast? According to Lee’s thesis, Ethereum has been undefeated as the go-to blockchain for decentralized finance (DeFi) since it launched over a decade ago. It pioneered everything from smart contracts to stablecoins—basically every major innovation in the space.

The real catalyst Lee is eyeing? Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. In plain English: taking traditional financial assets like stocks and bonds and converting them into digital tokens that can live on the blockchain. Lee describes this as a “1971 moment”—comparable to when the world abandoned the gold standard.

Big claim? Absolutely. But the tokenization market has already caught institutional attention. McKinsey downgraded its projection from $20 trillion to $2 trillion, but that’s still massive.

The Bitcoin Dependency Nobody Talks About

Here’s where it gets spicy. Lee’s $62K target for Ethereum assumes Bitcoin needs to hit $250,000 by early 2026. That’s a massive stretch—Bitcoin would need to nearly triple from current levels in just weeks.

Why? Because Lee believes Ethereum should trade at roughly a 0.25x multiple to Bitcoin. Do the math: divide Bitcoin’s price by 4, and you get where Ethereum should be trading. At current Bitcoin prices around $88.99K, that suggests Ethereum should already be near $21,250.

So by Lee’s own math, Ethereum is dramatically undervalued if you believe Bitcoin is heading north of $200K.

The Skeptic’s Angle

Fair warning: Lee chairs Bitmine Immersion Technologies, an Ethereum treasury company. His playbook is simple—accumulate ETH and hold. When Ethereum rallies, Bitmine rallies. That’s a bias worth acknowledging.

Also, a $62,000 forecast is 12.5x higher than any price Ethereum has ever actually hit. While ETH historically tracks Bitcoin pretty closely, there’s no guarantee that relationship holds through 2026. And no guarantee Bitcoin gets anywhere near $250K either.

The Middle Ground

Standard Chartered’s take is less explosive but still bullish—they predict Ethereum hits $25,000 by end of 2028. That’s more grounded than $62K, but still implies serious upside from here.

The bottom line? 1900% moves are theoretically possible in crypto. But they require everything to go exactly right. For now, getting Ethereum back to $5,000 by year-end might be the more realistic benchmark.