Key Takeaways
- Ethereum outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 25 percentage points and Bitcoin by 11 percentage points in July, according to figures highlighted by Tom Lee.
- Lee said BMNR shares went on to beat ETH over the next two months on all three occasions since 2025, when ETH outperformed Bitcoin in a calendar month.
- BitMine has expanded its treasury to nearly 5.8 million ETH, but the crypto remains well below the prices recorded during the company’s early accumulation drive.
Ethereum price scenarios reaching as high as $250,000 have returned to focus after Tom Lee highlighted ETH’s July outperformance of Bitcoin and the Nasdaq 100.
Ethereum outperformed both the Nasdaq 100 and Bitcoin in July, a show of relative strength that Lee believes could now set up another run for BitMine shares.
The comments came as BitMine disclosed another weekly ETH purchase, taking its holdings to almost 5.8 million tokens.
Despite that enormous accumulation, Ethereum remains far below the levels reached during the early months of the company’s buying campaign.
Ethereum’s July Strength Points Tom Lee to August and September
Lee drew attention to Ethereum’s July performance after sharing BitMine’s latest holdings update on X.
According to the company’s figures, ETH outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 25 percentage points, its widest monthly advantage over the index since July 2025.
Bitmine described the result as “reflective of the strengthening fundamentals of crypto.”
He also pointed to what happened one year earlier.
Ethereum advanced from $2,375 in July 2025 to $4,057 by the end of the following month.
The comparison hints at the possibility of another strong August, although Lee did not explicitly predict that ETH would repeat the move.
His more direct suggestion concerned BitMine’s share price.
Tom Lee said Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin in only three calendar months since 2025.
On all three occasions, he claimed BMNR then outperformed ETH over the following two months.
Ethereum beat Bitcoin by 11 percentage points in July 2026, prompting Lee to ask followers:
“Care to guess what BMNR does in August & Sept?”
BitMine Adds Another 10,399 ETH
BitMine said it acquired 10,399 ETH during the week before its Aug. 3 update, continuing a buying run that began with the launch of its Ethereum treasury strategy on June 30, 2025.
As of Aug. 2, the company held 5,797,813 ETH.
At the $1,880 reference price used in the update, the position was worth approximately $10.9 billion.
BitMine said the holdings represented 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, which is around 120.7 million tokens.
That leaves the company roughly 96% of the way toward Lee’s goal of controlling 5% of the supply.
Its total crypto, cash, marketable securities, and higher-risk “moonshot” investments were valued at approximately $11.3 billion.
BitMine is also using Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system to generate returns for the treasury.
The company reported 4,917,189 staked ETH as of Aug. 2, representing about 85% of its holdings.
It projected approximately $247 million in annualized staking revenue based on its recent yield.
BitMine’s Buying Has Not Been Enough to Transform ETH’s Price
BitMine’s accumulation has made it the world’s largest corporate Ethereum treasury, but the buying has not coincided with sustained ETH price growth.
The company’s first holdings disclosure after launching the strategy showed 163,142 ETH on July 14, 2025, when the crypto was priced at $3,072.67.
Its position then increased rapidly.
BitMine held 1,150,263 ETH as of Aug. 10, 2025, when the token was valued at $4,311, and 2,069,443 ETH as of Sept. 7, when it was trading at $4,312.
By Aug 2026, the treasury had grown to 5,797,813 ETH — more than 35 times its first reported position.
However, the $1,880 reference price in the latest update was around 39% below the July 2025 level and 56% below the September level.
The acquisition of nearly 5% of Ethereum’s supply has not been enough to override wider selling pressure and the crypto market downturn.
Tom Lee’s Biggest Ethereum Calls Depend on Beating Bitcoin
Despite the continued price weakness, July’s relative strength also supports a central part of Lee’s Ethereum thesis.
In recent years, Lee’s largest price scenarios have depended on ETH gaining substantial ground against Bitcoin.
In a November 2025 interview with Wealthion, Lee said Ethereum could fall toward $2,500 before rebounding to $7,000-$9,000 by the end of January 2026.
He argued that institutional tokenization could create an Ethereum “supercycle” and allow the crypto to outperform Bitcoin.
That deadline was missed.
Lee went on to lay out even larger targets using the ETH/BTC ratio and a hypothetical Bitcoin price of $250,000.
Under that framework, Ethereum would be worth approximately $12,000 if the ETH/BTC ratio returned to its eight-year average, Lee said.
He also claimed Ethereum could reach approximately $22,000 if the ratio returned to its 2021 cycle high of around 0.087.
His most aggressive scenario placed Ethereum between $60,000 and $62,000 if the ratio climbed to 0.25.
The final scenario would require one ETH to be worth one-quarter of a Bitcoin, representing an enormous shift in relative value toward Ethereum.
Tom Lee Ethereum Call: Is It Possible?
While not impossible, the high numbers are therefore not simple standalone price predictions.
They require Bitcoin to reach $250,000 while Ethereum simultaneously captures a much larger share of the two assets’ combined value.
Ethereum beating Bitcoin by 11 percentage points in July moves in the direction Lee expects, but one month of outperformance is very different from the sustained ETH/BTC expansion required to reach $12,000, $22,000, or $62,000.
Lee has also discussed a possible path to $250,000 ETH.
However, in his July chairman’s message, he attributed the 100-fold scenario to Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and research from Etherealize.
“Where do I land? I don’t know,” Lee said, while arguing that Ethereum’s expanding role in finance and AI could still create “radical upside.”
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
