Key Takeaways
- U.S.-listed Ethereum ETFs attracted their biggest daily inflow since October 2025.
- Tom Lee called the surge a “good sign” as Ethereum climbed approximately 30% over seven days.
- Lee recently predicted ETH would exceed $5,000 before the end of 2026, requiring another 109% gain from current levels.
Ethereum’s institutional comeback is gaining momentum after US spot exchange-traded funds recorded their strongest day in almost 10 months.
The products attracted $189.15 million on Aug. 19, accelerating a three-day inflow streak as Ethereum’s price surged toward $2,400.
BitMine chairman Tom Lee described the sudden return as a “good sign,” just days after he highlighted other bullish signals for Ethereum’s price.
The move has led bulls to speculate whether Lee’s bullish Ethereum forecast of $5,000 before the end of 2026 could be on the horizon.
Ethereum ETF Inflows Reach 10-Month High
US spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $189.15 million in net inflows on Aug. 19, their strongest single-day result since Oct. 28, 2025, according to SoSoValue data.
BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF led the session with approximately $122.12 million, accounting for nearly 65% of the daily total.
Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund followed with $36.54 million, while Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust added $16.04 million.
Together, the three products generated more than 92% of the day’s net inflows.
The surge followed inflows of $71.47 million on Aug. 18 and $30.85 million on Aug. 17, taking the three-day total to approximately $291.47 million.
Ethereum ETFs have now attracted roughly $534.2 million during August, making it their strongest month of 2026 so far.
Responding to the figures on Friday, Aug. 21, Lee wrote on X: “This is a good sign.”
Bitwise’s Horsley also highlighted a sharp increase in activity across the firm’s crypto products.
He said Bitwise ETFs generated another $300 million-plus session, led by approximately $106 million in trading volume for its Bitcoin ETF.
“Prices definitely seem to have woken up interest,” Horsley said.
Ethereum Price Surges as Wider Crypto Market Grows
The institutional activity has arrived alongside one of Ethereum’s strongest rallies of the year.
ETH was trading near $2,390 at the time of writing, representing a gain of approximately 4.3% over 24 hours and 30.4% over seven days, according to CoinGecko.
The rally has also spread across the wider crypto market.
Bitcoin moved above $78,000 to reach a 12-week high, while XRP and Solana also posted substantial gains.
The total crypto market capitalization rose approximately 6.6% over 24 hours to $2.63 trillion.
Tom Lee Doubles Down on $5,000 Ethereum Prediction
Lee’s latest reaction follows a series of increasingly bullish comments about Ethereum.
In BitMine’s Aug. 17 update, Lee pointed to Ethereum’s improving performance against Bitcoin.
“We are encouraged to see the ETH/BTC ratio at 0.02994 and rising,” he said.
Lee argued that the ratio had broken above the long-term downward trend that defined Ethereum’s performance relative to Bitcoin over the past several years.
He interpreted the breakout as evidence that investors are beginning to price in demand from tokenization and agentic AI applications.
Previous periods of ETH outperformance were supported by initial coin offerings in 2017 and 2018, NFTs and decentralized applications in 2020 and 2021, and stablecoin adoption in 2025, according to Lee.
He believes the next cycle could instead be driven by Wall Street moving traditional assets onto blockchains and autonomous AI systems using Ethereum for transactions.
The bullish thesis supports Lee’s prediction that Ethereum will climb above $5,000 before the end of 2026, alongside Bitcoin returning to six figures.
From approximately $2,390, ETH would need to rise another 109% to reach that target.
A $5,000 price would give Ethereum a circulating market capitalization of roughly $604 billion, assuming its supply remains near 120.7 million tokens.
It would also take ETH slightly above its November 2021 record high of approximately $4,878.
Tom Lee’s Previous Ethereum Forecast Missed the Mark
Lee’s renewed optimism comes after an earlier Ethereum forecast failed to materialize, drawing criticism from some traders and investors.
He previously predicted that ETH would bottom near $2,500 before rebounding sharply toward $9,000 by early 2026.
Instead, Ethereum fell below its expected floor and remained under pressure as the broader crypto downturn intensified.
Lee had characterized the earlier decline from approximately $4,800 to $2,800 as an “engineered liquidation” intended to force weaker market participants to sell.
“The crash from $4,800 to $2,800 does not change Ethereum’s long-term value,” Lee said.
However, ETH’s weakness has continued to raise fresh questions about the timing and reliability of his price calls.
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.
