Tom Lee Optimistic About Ethereum Entering Second Growth Phase
Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat and chairman of Bitmine, stated in his speech at WebX 2026 that Ethereum is at a critical juncture similar to Amazon, Nvidia, and JPMorgan entering their second phase of growth.
ETH reached a high of $4,866 during the ICO and NFT boom, and in 2025, it briefly rose to $4,955 driven by spot ETFs and stablecoins, but has since fallen to around $1,732, defined as a "market abandonment in the bottom area."
In terms of market mechanisms, Wall Street institutions are expanding their Ethereum ecosystem by building Layer 2, while traditional financial capital is migrating to ETH. Companies like Bitmine are accelerating their holdings and staking to enhance network security and value capture.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Tom Lee has long been optimistic about crypto assets. Since its inception, Bitmine planned to hold 5% of the global ETH supply for five years, and has now completed 95% of that in just 12 months, holding 5.74 million ETH (about 4.8% of the total supply), with 85% already staked, demonstrating a long-term institutional allocation path.
In terms of capital pathways, institutions are concentrating resources on the Ethereum settlement layer through Layer 2 construction and large-scale staking. ETH, as a "currency," combined with Agentic AI, aims to capture the long-term dividends of the migration from the traditional financial system to blockchain.
Similar to Nvidia's transformation from GPU to AI platform, Ethereum is currently in an expansion phase transitioning from early speculative frenzy to infrastructure and financial settlement layer. The new foundation structure provides governance support.
Essentially, this represents capital concentration: large institutions and enterprises are concentrating their holdings in the ETH ecosystem, combining Layer 2 and AI agents, which mechanism-wise shifts pricing power from speculative cycles to practical value and network effects, laying the foundation for the second growth phase.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Bottom abandonment nurtures a second spring; institutional entry signals are stronger than price fluctuations.
Capital is concentrating on infrastructure; network effects determine long-term winners and losers.
Holding and staking are not speculation but tickets to participate in the reconstruction of the financial system.