Key Takeaways
- Tom Lee says Ethereum is attracting the “venerable and elite of Wall Street,” but will it help his bullish price prediction?
- Amundi deployed on public Ethereum without consultation, joining BlackRock and Franklin Templeton in choosing the network.
- Analysts are unsure about Lee’s bullish $9,000 price target.
Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee said major financial institutions building on the Ethereum blockchain represent “the venerable and elite of Wall Street,” fueling fresh debate over whether growing institutional adoption could support his long-term bullish price target of $9,000.
“Elite of Wall Street” Turning to Ethereum
In comments posted on X, Lee highlighted that Europe’s largest asset manager, Amundi, had launched a tokenized fund on Ethereum.
“The list of institutions building on Ethereum is the venerable and elite of Wall Street,” Lee wrote.
Adding: “The latest is Amundi… Europe’s largest asset manager is launching a tokenized fund on Ethereum.”
Lee’s remarks follow a broader institutional shift toward public blockchains, with asset managers experimenting with tokenization as regulators and investors warm to digital infrastructure.
Ethereum Foundation Ecosystem Lead
James Smith, head of ecosystem at the Ethereum Foundation, underscored the significance of Amundi’s move, saying the asset manager had deployed on Ethereum without fanfare.
“A €2.2 trillion asset manager called Amundi just launched a tokenized fund on Ethereum,” Smith posted.
“They didn’t ask anyone. They just did it on November 4th and told everyone three weeks later,” he wrote.
Smith added that Amundi’s scale exceeds major U.S. asset managers: “They’re bigger than Fidelity’s asset management arm. Bigger than PIMCO. Number one in Europe, top ten globally.”
Adding: “And they chose public Ethereum. Not a private chain. BlackRock chose Ethereum. Franklin Templeton chose Ethereum. Amundi chose Ethereum.”
Ethereum is increasingly being seen as the preferred blockchain for large institutions experimenting with real-world asset tokenization, something that Tom Lee believes will eventually lead it to lead it to new heights.
Ethereum’s $9,000 Prediction
Lee’s institutional-adoption remarks coincide with his latest bullish price forecast.
Despite the crypto market continuing to bleed, Lee said Ethereum’s pullback will be followed by a major upside.
“In the near-term, there is downside to $2,500, but that is minor compared to the upside,” he said. “We think that ETH can be $7,000 to $9,000 by the end of January.”
At the time of report, Ethereum is trading around $2,843, marking a decrease of over 5%.
Charts Don’t Align With Lee’s Rally Scenario
Valdrin Tahiri, an analyst at CCN, cautioned on Friday that technical indicators diverge sharply from Lee’s outlook.
He noted that Ethereum “broke down from its 220-day diagonal support… on Nov. 13,” adding that “the breakdown’s importance cannot be overstated, as it confirmed that the upward trend had come to an end.”
While bulls are attempting a recovery, with Ethereum “breaking out from a short-term descending wedge,” Tahiri warned that heavy resistance looms.
“Even if this breakout leads to a surge, ETH will face resistance at the diagonal support,” he wrote, saying the level has rejected Ethereum “multiple times,” and losing momentum there “could erase the entire bounce.”
Tahiri sees upside “limited to $3,500,” which he said aligns with both horizontal and Fibonacci resistance levels.
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.
