Tom Lee: Rising Oil Prices Weigh on Ethereum

Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine and co-founder of Fundstrat, pointed to rising oil prices as the main headwind for Ethereum after the token fell nearly 10% over the past week to an intraday low of $2,097 on Binance on Sunday, wiping out gains posted in May. At press time ETH traded around $2,116.82, down about 2.9% in the previous 24 hours.

The $2,097 intraday low was the weakest level for ETH since April 7 and has prompted traders to reassess near-term momentum for the token.

Lee said the negative correlation between Ethereum and crude oil reached a record high. He wrote on X: “If one is wondering why Ethereum ETH has been under selling pressure: To me, rising oil prices is the biggest headwind. ETH inverse correlation to oil is the highest ever.”

Brent crude traded near $111 per barrel on Monday, up roughly 16.4% over the past month. The oil rally followed rising tensions between the United States and Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, developments that tightened supply expectations.

Lee described the recent weakness as “short-term tactical noise” and pointed to longer-term trends he expects to support Ethereum, citing tokenization and agentic artificial intelligence. Earlier this month he projected ETH could reach $9,000 to $12,000 by year-end.

Market participants are watching oil markets and on-chain indicators for signs that selling pressure on ETH is easing or that adoption trends are gaining momentum.