BitMine by Tom Lee buys US$ 76 million in Ethereum while analysts predict that ETH will outperform Bitcoin

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: Tom Lee’s BitMine purchases $76 million in Ethereum while analysts predict ETH will outperform Bitcoin Original Link: One of the leading Ethereum treasury companies listed on the stock exchange added 24,266 ETH — valued at approximately $76 million — to its holdings last week.

The latest acquisition raises the company’s Ethereum treasury to over 4.16 million ETH, worth approximately $13 billion, making it the largest Ethereum treasury and the second-largest crypto asset treasury overall, behind only a similar strategy’s Bitcoin holdings (valued at around $63 billion). The company now holds about 3.5% of the entire circulating supply of Ethereum.

“2026 heralds many positive things for crypto, with stablecoin adoption and tokenization driving blockchain to become Wall Street’s settlement layer, particularly favoring Ethereum,” said the company’s president, Tom Lee, in a statement.

“We continue to see the deleveraging reset after October 10 as something akin to a ‘mini crypto winter.’ 2026 is the year crypto prices recover, with even stronger gains in 2027-2028,” he continued, referring to the record liquidation in October that wiped out $19 billion in positions in a single day.

Lee and the company remain strongly committed to Ethereum, putting their “money where their mouth is,” amid Lee’s call for a “100x ETH supercycle” and a future price target of $250,000 per ETH.

The company’s confidence in the second-largest asset by market capitalization is supported by a new research note published Monday by banking giant Standard Chartered, which highlights ongoing purchases as a catalyst for ETH’s outperformance relative to Bitcoin moving forward.

Reasons for optimism with Ethereum

“We see several drivers for ETH’s superior performance,” wrote a Standard Chartered analyst. “Although all digital assets have seen slower inflows via ETFs and corporate digital asset treasuries, ongoing purchases give ETH a relative advantage.”

Like Lee, the analyst also points to stablecoin adoption and real-world asset tokenization as key trends that will support ETH in the future and ultimately reduce the ETH-BTC ratio.

The global bank revised downward its short-term price targets for ETH based on weakened crypto market performance, now suggesting a price of $7,500 in 2026 — which would still represent a historic peak for ETH — compared to previous projections of $12,000.

However, along with the short-term revisions, Standard Chartered raised its long-term outlook, now forecasting prices of $30,000 for ETH by 2029 and $40,000 by 2030.

“In absolute terms, Bitcoin’s weaker-than-expected performance led to downgrades for BTC forecasts and delayed the final projection of $500,000 for 2030,” it stated.

“Given Bitcoin’s dominance in the digital asset space, we also downgraded forecasts for ETH-USD in the coming years. In relative terms, however, we believe the outlook for Ethereum has become more positive.”

ETH would need to rise nearly 1,200% to reach Standard Chartered’s $40,000 price target, based on recent trading prices. The asset has been nearly stable over the past 24 hours, trading around $3,132. It remains about 37% below its all-time high of 2025, of $4,496.