Tom Lee Sees Ethereum at $9K-$12K by 2026; Binance Inflows

Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, projected that Ethereum will trade between $9,000 and $12,000 by the end of 2026. He delivered the forecast at Consensus Miami and paired the ETH range with a Bitcoin target of $150,000 to $200,000, calling the crypto winter over and citing tokenization and advances in agentic artificial intelligence as tailwinds.

On-chain data from early May shows large inflows of ETH to Binance. The exchange received 216,152 ETH on May 6, 98,552 ETH on May 8 and 125,146 ETH on May 9. The transfers were worth roughly $511 million, $224 million and $288 million at the time of receipt. Binance’s reserves rose to about 3.62 million ETH, representing roughly 24.6% of Ethereum held on centralized platforms.

Analyst Darkfost wrote that “some degree of short-term instability remains among large ETH holders.” Darkfost added that the transfers occurred while price was entering corrective phases and described the movements as “emotional reactions from investors rather than calculated profit taking.” The analyst suggested those flows may help explain recent price consolidation.

Another analyst projected a $10,000 to $15,000 ETH range for the cycle and cited institutional deployments and tokenized real-world assets as supporting factors.

At a recent price near $2,323, reaching Lee’s midpoint of $10,500 would require a roughly 415% increase. Lee previously forecast $10,000 to $12,000 by the end of 2025; Ethereum later peaked near $4,946 in August 2025 and fell sharply beginning in October.

Market participants have identified broader macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions as potential headwinds for a rapid, sustained rally.