The cryptocurrency market is undergoing a strong correction; however, despite the panic, extremely bullish forecasts are emerging. Bitcoin is once again in the spotlight as one of the most well-known Wall Street analysts speaks of historical levels. While retail investors are withdrawing, institutions are acting very decisively.
The crypto market often goes through phases of fear, and the current situation is another test for patient investors.
Historical liquidation and behavior of institutions
October 2025 is recorded in history as the largest liquidation event in the crypto market. Due to panic movements, about 1 trillion USD vanished from the market. Over 2 million retail investor accounts were liquidated. This was a moment when many players lost all their capital. Yesterday, on January 21, 2026, there were also relatively large liquidations, although on a smaller scale than those from October 2025. Nevertheless, within an hour, Bitcoin fell from 90,000 USD to 87,000 USD. It is currently hovering around 89,000 USD after a slight rebound.
Tom Lee pointed out something significant. During the greatest fear, only two companies were buying cryptocurrencies on a massive scale. MicroStrategy purchased Bitcoin for 2.9 billion USD, while Metaplanet invested 330 million USD.
Bitmine also took advantage of the declines, purchasing Ethereum for 2.4 billion USD. Two other companies were selling ETH at the same time. This shows a clear difference between institutional behavior and retail investors.
In practice, this meant a concentration of the market. MicroStrategy and Bitmine accounted for about 90% of the volume of all crypto treasury. The remaining 78 companies shared just 10% of the market.
Bitmine's dominance and the significance of Ethereum
Bitmine has become a key player in the Ethereum market. The company currently holds about 13 billion USD in ETH. This is five times more than the next largest holder. The scale of this position is impressive.
Bitmine's daily trading volume reaches 1.6 billion USD. That's fourteen times more than the second largest entity in this segment. As a result, the company has made it into the top 50 most traded stocks in the USA.
Tom Lee compared the current situation to events following the collapse of FTX in November 2022. Back then, the market began to rebound after about eight weeks. After the October 2025 crash, the first signs of recovery appeared in mid-December.
It was then that MicroStrategy and Bitmine began aggressive purchases. Lee believes it was not a coincidence. In his opinion, it was a signal that institutional capital sees long-term value.
This brings us to a key question: why are Ethereum and Bitcoin so attractive to large players?
Bitcoin, forecasts, and controversial valuation
Tom Lee is known for his bold predictions, but this time his words evoked enormous emotions. During his speech, he said directly:
"We expect Bitcoin to reach 250,000 USD this year."
After this statement, the market reacted with extreme opinions. Some considered it excessive optimism, while others saw it as a logical scenario. Lee argues that current valuation models do not reflect the real value of digital assets.
He believes that the traditional DCF approach does not work in the case of cryptocurrencies. Gold trades at a 120x P/S ratio, even though it does not generate cash flow. Land in Manhattan also does not generate cash flow, yet its value is enormous.
Lee compares Ethereum to digital land. It is the only blockchain on which Wall Street is actively building financial infrastructure. JP Morgan is tokenizing money market funds, BlackRock is working on the tokenization of assets, and Robinhood is developing stock tokenization.
In this context, Bitcoin serves as digital gold. It is scarce, global, and increasingly treated as a store of value. This explains why institutions accumulate it during downturns.
Ethereum, the ETH/BTC relationship and a possible scenario
Lee also pointed out the ETH/BTC relationship. It currently stands at around 0.034. In 2021, it reached 0.087, which means a drop of about 60%. At the same time, Ethereum's fundamentals are much stronger today.
Transaction fees are lower, the number of developers is increasing, and stablecoins are exploding. The tokenization of real assets is playing an increasingly important role. All of this makes Ethereum more useful than a few years ago.
If Bitcoin indeed reaches 250,000 USD, and the ETH/BTC ratio returns to the peaks of 2021, the price of ETH could be around 22,000 USD. At the current level of around 3,200 USD, this would mean almost a sevenfold increase.
Lee also quoted Joe Lubin's opinion. The co-founder of Ethereum sees ETH long-term even at 250,000 USD. At such a valuation, Bitmine's shares could reach around 5,000 USD, due to the high correlation.
It is worth addressing a few key questions that beginner investors often ask.
Does this mean the market has already recovered? No, Lee emphasizes that volatility will remain high. Is Bitcoin already expensive? In his opinion, the current prices still do not reflect the potential. Have institutions taken over the market? According to Lee, yes, and the current crash is a transfer of capital from retail to large players.
The main arguments of Lee can be summarized in a few points:
institutions buy during panic,
Bitcoin serves as digital gold,
Ethereum is the foundation of financial tokenization,
traditional valuation models do not work in crypto.
Tom Lee believes that the year 2026 could be groundbreaking. Bitcoin could establish a new ATH, and Ethereum could become a key layer of the global financial system. It's a very bullish vision, but it is supported by concrete data and institutional behavior.
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