Lee noted that a key driver was that the bulk of stablecoin issuance is now happening on the Ethereum network.
Tom Lee, chair of BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) and the Managing Partner at Fundstrat, sees Ethereum’s (ETH) price pushing beyond Standard Chartered’s $7,500 target this year, with a Fed rate cut providing extra momentum.
“7,500 might even be on the low end of what’s possible, I’ve seen many targets of $10,000 to $15,000,” Lee said, according to a CNBC report. “Wall Street needs to find a stable and legally compliant blockchain to work on. The majority of stablecoin creation is taking place on Ethereum. … It is the place where Wall Street is essentially financializing the system.”
Ethereum’s price crossed $4,700 in early morning trade on Wednesday, up 6.6% in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is just 3.5% below its all-time high of $4,878, seen nearly four years ago. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Ethereum surged higher within ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past day amid ‘high’ levels of chatter.
Meanwhile, Bitmine’s stock surged more than 10% after the opening bell. The company is the largest corporate holder of Ethereum with over 1.15 million ETH tokens in its treasury. Its goal is to accumulate as much as 5% of Ethereum’s global token supply.
Lee’s comments come after Standard Chartered lifted its year-end price prediction for Ethereum to $7,500, up from $4,000 on Wednesday. “We project that the stablecoin sector will grow by around 8x by end-2028, which would have a significant direct impact on fees on the Ethereum network,” said Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research. The brokerage raised its 2028 year-end forecast to $25,000, up from $75,000.
Read also: Ethereum Inches From Record, Dogecoin Soars — Here’s What Sparked the Surge
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