- Lee says Ethereum’s decline looks like forced selling and could bottom near $2,500.
- BitMine is expanding into staking and made a major investment in WorldCoin.
- Lee still expects a sharp ETH rebound, targeting $7,000–$9,000 early next year.
Ethereum has been slipping toward the mid-$2,000s, and Tom Lee thinks that slide might actually be setting up the next big opportunity. In a recent conversation with Chris Perkins of CoinFund, Lee said that strategic advisor Tom DeMark noticed something unusual in the recent Ethereum drawdown. According to him, the sell-off looks less like organic fear and more like systematic, almost mechanical liquidation. Someone with limited capital appears to be forced into selling as price drops, which makes every leg down sharper than it should be. It’s painful, Lee admitted, but also the kind of setup that often marks a real bottom.
Why $2,500 Matters for Ethereum’s Market Structure
Lee explained that DeMark has been watching the chart for weeks and consistently pointed to $2,500 as the downside target. With ETH now hovering not too far above that level, Lee thinks a final flush into that zone would be healthier than a sudden reversal. In his words, “bleeding” into support creates the kind of exhaustion DeMark calls a buy setup. Ethereum has fallen hard from its $4,800 peak, especially compared to the S&P 500, which kept rallying for nearly three more weeks after ETH topped out. Much of the divergence, Lee said, began with the massive October 10 crash in crypto that triggered automatic deleveraging and trapped market makers.
BitMine’s Push Into Staking and WorldCoin
BitMine, the company Lee chairs and that now holds roughly 3 percent of all ETH in existence, isn’t slowing down despite the turbulence. The firm recently unveiled MAVEN, a staking network set to launch with several institutional partners. Lee described it as OFAC-friendly and built to satisfy US Treasury and Wall Street expectations, hinting at a more compliance-focused approach to staking. BitMine also invested $20 million into Orbs, the token tied to WorldCoin, which uses iris scanning to generate a cryptographic proof-of-personhood without storing biometric data. On top of that, the company introduced a small annual dividend. It’s tiny compared to earnings, but Lee said it makes BitMine the only large-cap crypto stock offering one today.
A Steep Drop Now for a Bigger Run Later
Even as ETH inches toward $2,500, Lee isn’t pulling back on his long-term thesis. He still expects a supercycle driven by tokenization across traditional markets, something he believes will push Ethereum into far higher territory once the current forced selling burns out. If ETH hits $2,500, Lee sees it as a temporary setback—a stepping stone rather than a failure. He reiterated his belief that Ethereum could jump to $7,000 or even $9,000 by the end of January if the market resets the way it often does in fourth-quarter recoveries. For now, all eyes are on whether Ethereum drifts a little lower and finally hits the level he and DeMark have been waiting for.
