BitMine chair Tom Lee and BitMEX co‑founder Arthur Hayes are maintaining predictions that Ethereum will reach $10,000 by year‑end. Both analysts appeared on the Bankless podcast on Tuesday, reaffirming their targets despite recent market volatility.
“For Ethereum, somewhere between $10,000 and $12,000,” Lee stated when asked about year‑end price projections. Hayes said he's “going to stay consistent” with his $10,000 forecast.
With Ethereum trading at $4,129 at publication time, reaching $10,000 would represent approximately 142% gains. Both analysts consider this target achievable within the remaining months of 2025.
Lee emphasized the rally wouldn't signal excessive market froth. Ethereum has largely consolidated within a range since hitting an all‑time high of $4,878 in 2021. “Ethereum's basically been basing for four years now, just broke out of the range, so to me, it wouldn't be a blow off top, but rather seeking essentially price discovery at a new level,” Lee explained.
The cryptocurrency briefly reclaimed 2021 highs in August before retracing. It hasn't revisited that level since.
“I think there would be a lot of fundamental things happening next year,” Lee added. “I don't think it's the top, but I'm sure it is a big level.”
Historical data suggests more conservative outcomes. Ethereum has delivered average Q4 returns of 21.36% since 2016, according to CoinGlass. A similar gain from current prices would bring the asset closer to $5,000 by year‑end.
The predictions follow Friday's market crash that saw over $19 billion in liquidations across crypto markets. Ethereum dropped from near $4,350 to current levels during the sell‑off.
Other analysts project targets between these extremes. Tesseract CEO James Harris expects Ethereum to reach around $6,500. MN Capital founder Michaël van de Poppe noted Sunday's drop saw the ETH/BTC pair plunge to 0.032, which he called an “ideal zone for buys.”