Tom Lee Sees Bullish 12 Months as Wall Street Embraces Crypto

Wall Street Turns to Blockchain as Tom Lee Sees Crypto Cycle Bottom

Tom Lee sees the ingredients for another major crypto expansion falling into place, but this time his thesis rests on more than another speculative cycle.

“I think it’s going to be a really bullish period for crypto for the next 12 months,” Lee said in an interview with Wealthion.

His central argument is that Wall Street’s relationship with blockchain has fundamentally changed.

“Only in the last year and a half have we seen Wall Street embrace blockchain, tokenized securities, stablecoins, and the idea that you’re rebuilding entire rails on crypto,” Lee said.

That shift, he argued, has dramatically expanded crypto’s addressable market.

Wall Street Is No Longer Watching From the Sidelines

Lee pointed to public comments from Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and Blackrock CEO Larry Fink about moving financial assets onto blockchain infrastructure.

“In no other era for the last 15 years of the history of blockchain has the financial system actually viewed it as a tool,” Lee said. “Now it does.”

Bitmine’s own balance sheet reinforces Lee’s ethereum thesis. The company acquired another 27,180 ETH over the past week, lifting its holdings to 5.96 million ETH as of Sept. 13. That represents roughly 4.9% of ethereum’s 122 million ETH supply, putting Bitmine about 98% of the way toward its goal of owning 5% of all ETH.

For investors, that distinction matters. Tokenization and stablecoins potentially give crypto demand a use case beyond trading, while connecting blockchain networks to traditional capital markets. Lee also sees ethereum as particularly exposed to that transition, following its recent market strength.

Leverage Is Returning After a Major Reset

The second part of Lee’s thesis is cyclical. He said much of the leverage that contributed to last year’s crypto liquidations has been extinguished, leaving the market with a cleaner foundation.

He also argued that the traditional four-year crypto cycle is approaching a bottom within weeks, while strong crypto-linked equity performance could encourage institutional investors to chase returns.

Lee noted that four of the Russell 1000’s top 21 performers during the third quarter were crypto-related stocks, with Bitmine up 99% at the time of the interview.

One Catalyst Has Already Hit a Roadblock

Lee also cited the potential advancement of the CLARITY Act as a tailwind. That part of the outlook has since weakened.

On Sept. 15, the U.S. Senate rejected cloture on the measure by 49-50, short of the 60 votes needed to advance it procedurally. That setback underscores the uncertainty surrounding any 12-month market forecast.

Lee has a long history of bullish crypto calls, and market commentators note that his targets do not always materialize. Still, his broader argument is worth watching: crypto is entering this cycle with Wall Street increasingly building on the technology rather than merely trading around it.