Yesterday, Bitmine Immersion Technologies owner Tom Lee said the bull market has already begun and that the current cycle could become the strongest in history. The Fundstrat co-founder expects institutional investors to ramp up purchases in Q4. Ethereum — the main focus of his bet — is trading around $2,700 now, compared with roughly $1,730 in mid-July, an increase of about 55%. That aligns with Lee's earlier view: he defines the end of June as the start of the bull market and argues Ethereum was the best macro asset of Q3.

Lee sees the difference in this cycle's growth drivers. In 2016–2017, markets were driven by ICOs, then NFTs; now tokenization and stablecoins from big financial firms are doing the heavy lifting. He thinks BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Robinhood will likely continue migrating to blockchain, and that long-term drivers for Ethereum will be tokenization and AI agents paying in digital money. A fresh argument for this view came from the SEC: on September 17, the regulator cleared the way for tokenized shares. The blockchain platforms issuing such assets win, while projects that rode the hype of past cycles lose out.

The boldest forecast concerns market size. Lee believes crypto could expand to $10 trillion via intergenerational wealth transfer: this year, young Americans may inherit about $700 billion, and if even $200 billion of that flows into crypto, the inflow could push the market to $10 trillion.

Reminder: BitMine, led by Lee, remains a major Ethereum buyer. As of September 20, the company held 5.98 million ETH — about 4.9% of supply — and it was roughly 121,000 ETH short of its 5% target. About 85% of its Ether is staked.

I expect Ethereum to retain an upward bias from the current $2,700 in Q4 as long as institutional inflows confirm Lee's thesis, and BitMine reaches the 5% supply target in the coming weeks. The weak point in this scenario is reliance on one loud position: if institutional buying does not materialize and the Federal Reserve keeps tightening interest rates, the market will quickly remind us that the claim of the strongest cycle in history is still just words.

Technical outlook for Bitcoin

Buyers are targeting a return to $84,900, which would open a direct path to $87,000 and then to $89,000 — a break above which would signal attempts to restore the bull market. On the downside, I expect buyers at $83,000. A drop below that area could quickly push BTC toward $81,300. The next extended downside target would be around $79,400.

Technical outlook for Ethereum

A clear close above $2,728 opens the way to $2,793. The next extended target is around $2,872 — a break above which would reinforce bullish sentiment and restore buyer interest. On the downside, I expect buyers at $2,668. A return below that area could quickly send ETH toward $2,578. The next extended downside target would be around $2,486.

Chart notes:

• Red levels denote support and resistance points where price is expected to either stall or accelerate.
• Green shows the 50-day moving average.
• Blue shows the 100-day moving average.
• Light green shows the 200-day moving average.

Crosses of — or price tests of — these moving averages typically either stop the move or set a new market impulse.