After months of crypto market doldrums, Wall Street bull Tom Lee is back with a bold call. Speaking at the 2026 Paris Blockchain Week on Wednesday (July 15), the chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies declared that the recent downturn was just a “mini crypto winter” — and that winter may already be over.
Equities bottom, ETH poised for big recovery
Lee said traditional equities have already bottomed amid geopolitical shocks like the U.S.-Iran conflict. He noted that this crypto selloff was “unusual” because it did not coincide with a broad equity bear market. Citing historical patterns, he argued: “Stocks usually bottom on bad news, and we’ve had enough bad news.” Against this backdrop, Lee turned his focus to Ethereum.
He expects tokenization and agentic AI applications on smart contract networks to propel ETH out of a prolonged consolidation phase. His price target is audacious: if his thesis holds, Ethereum could be on a path to $60,000. He even called $62,000 a “reasonable value” over the next few years, based on ETH reaching a quarter of Bitcoin's long-term valuation.
Paper loss of $3.8B, yet Bitmine keeps buying
Lee's own company, Bitmine, is under severe financial stress. ETH has plunged 43% since October 2025, currently trading near $2,327 — well below Bitmine's average cost of roughly $3,660. In a Tuesday filing with the SEC, Bitmine reported a massive $3.82 billion loss in Q1, most of it ($3.78B+) from unrealized losses on crypto assets. Revenue was just $11 million ($10.2M from staking ETH), a drop in the bucket against the paper loss.
Yet the firm's conviction remains unshaken. On Monday, Bitmine announced another purchase of 71,524 ETH. Having just uplisted to the NYSE on April 9, Bitmine now holds 4.6 million ETH (worth over $10 billion), representing 4.04% of total supply. It is the largest corporate holder of Ethereum globally — far ahead of second-place SharpLink Gaming with 863,000 ETH.