Tom Lee boldly predicts: Will Ethereum soar to $9,000 by early 2026?

Renowned analyst and Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee recently made a market-shaking prediction on CNBC’s “Power Lunch”: Ethereum (ETH) could rise to $7,000 to $9,000 in the first quarter of 2026.

In the long term, its price could even reach $20,000.

01 Core Prediction: Tom Lee’s Ethereum Price Outlook

Renowned market analyst Tom Lee’s recent forecast has once again shifted the focus of the cryptocurrency market to Ethereum. Known for his bold predictions, the co-founder of Fundstrat and chairman of BitMine explicitly stated on CNBC on December 27, 2025, that Ethereum could reach a price range of $7,000 to $9,000 in early 2026.

This prediction is not an isolated view. Tom Lee is also optimistic about Bitcoin, believing it could reach $200,000 by 2026 and potentially hit a new all-time high before January 2026.

In Tom Lee’s view, the valuation logic of Ethereum and Bitcoin differs. He emphasizes Ethereum’s role as financial infrastructure rather than just a store of value. This perspective is reflected in his prediction logic: as Wall Street accelerates asset tokenization, Ethereum will gain unprecedented practical application scenarios.

02 Driving Forces: The Wave of Asset Tokenization

The core basis of Tom Lee’s prediction stems from a grand structural trend: the accelerated adoption of blockchain technology by traditional financial institutions and the push for asset tokenization.

“Wall Street wants to tokenize everything,” Lee said on the program. This trend is rapidly shifting from concept validation to actual implementation.

Institutions like Robinhood and asset management giant BlackRock are already advancing on-chain settlement and tokenized securities plans. This shift not only enhances the efficiency of traditional financial systems but also brings real and large-scale application demands to the Ethereum network.

Ethereum has already taken a leading position in this field. It hosts over $12 billion in tokenized real-world assets (RWA) and is the main settlement layer for approximately $170 billion in on-chain stablecoins. Tom Lee believes that as institutional adoption deepens, its value as financial infrastructure will be further re-evaluated.

03 On-Chain Signals: TVL Growth Expectations and Institutional Actions

Supporting Tom Lee’s bullish logic are not only macro narratives but also specific on-chain data forecasts. Industry expert Joseph Chalom predicts that Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) could increase tenfold by 2026.

Currently, Ethereum’s TVL is about $68 billion, and a tenfold increase would directly reflect a huge leap in network activity and capital attraction capacity.

Tom Lee has publicly expressed his bullish outlook, and his company BitMine is also actively betting on Ethereum. The company holds over 4,066,062 ETH, accounting for about 3.37% of Ethereum’s total supply.

Recently, BitMine staked its Ethereum holdings for the first time to earn yields. According to on-chain analyst @EmberCN’s estimates, with an annualized yield of approximately 3.12%, staking all holdings could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in interest in one year. This demonstrates institutional confidence in Ethereum’s long-term holding potential.

04 Market Status: Ethereum’s Real-Time Performance

As of December 29, 2025, on the Gate platform, Ethereum (ETH) has the following real-time market data:

Looking at a longer cycle, Ethereum’s price has increased slightly by +0.13% over the past 30 days but has decreased by -11.54% compared to a year ago. This indicates that despite recent recovery, current prices are still significantly below Tom Lee’s predicted target range of $7,000 to $9,000.

Gate’s forecast model shows an average predicted price of about $3,020 in 2026, contrasting with Tom Lee’s optimistic outlook.

05 Forecast Evaluation: Rational Perspective and Analyst Track Record

While Tom Lee’s predictions are exciting, investors should remain rational when referencing them. Reviewing his Bitcoin forecast for 2025 reveals a characteristic: the direction was correct, but the timing and price magnitude were often overly aggressive.

In March 2025, he predicted Bitcoin could “easily break through $150,000” by year’s end, only to revise it in September to possibly reach $200,000. In reality, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of about $126,210 in October 2025 before pulling back, with year-end prices oscillating between $80,000 and $90,000.

Market opinions on Tom Lee often are “trust his logic, but not his timing.” His emphasis on “traditional funds entering via ETFs and other channels” and “asset tokenization” are undoubtedly long-term and solid structural trends.

These logics will not change due to a short-term 30% market correction. However, the volatility of the cryptocurrency market is influenced by multiple complex factors, and projecting long-term trends into precise short-term price targets involves high uncertainty.

Joseph Chalom, co-CEO of Sharplink, offers another perspective on Ethereum’s 2026 outlook. He predicts that the scale of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) could exceed $300 billion by then, and the amount of Ethereum held by sovereign wealth funds could increase five to ten times.

The Future

Just one day after Tom Lee’s prediction, Bitcoin’s price briefly broke $90,000, indicating a general market rebound. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s market share on the Gate platform remains stable at 12.1%, with a security score of 97.23, ranking at the industry top level.

Market analyst Christopher Perkins agrees with Tom Lee’s view on institutional adoption trends, believing that more companies will choose blockchain networks based on risk management, network uptime, and security considerations.