Tom Lee (톰 리), chairman of Bitmine, recently described the crypto bear market as a “mini crypto winter” and forecast that Ethereum could rise above $60,000 within years. On April 15, blockchain outlet Cointelegraph reported that Lee said in a keynote speech at “Blockchain Week 2026” in Paris that the market downturn may already be coming to an end.

Lee said the stock market had hit bottom due to the fallout from a U.S. and Israeli war related to Iran, and that the crypto market could enter a recovery phase as a result. He called the decline an “unusual” correction, the first case not tied to broader weakness in the stock market. “The stock market makes a bottom amid bad news,” he said. “We have experienced a lot of bad news,” he added.

On Ethereum, he cited tokenisation and agentic artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives as a catalyst for a rebound. He argued that Ethereum would break out of a current phase of “large-scale sideways movement.” “If I am right, Ethereum is on the road to $60,000,” he said, presenting $62,000 as a fair-value scenario for the following years. The figure is based on an assumption that Ethereum’s long-term value reaches about one quarter of Bitcoin’s.

The remarks came shortly after Bitmine posted a first-quarter loss of $3.82 billion due to valuation losses on its Ethereum holdings. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings showed most of the loss stemmed from more than $3.78 billion in unrealised losses from crypto holdings. Bitmine posted revenue of $11 million over the same period, including $10.2 million from Ethereum staking.

Market prices remain below Bitmine’s average purchase price. In the original report, Ethereum was at around $2,300, down 43 percent since October 2025, and below Bitmine’s average acquisition price of $3,660. Despite the large losses, Bitmine said on April 14 it bought an additional 71,524 Ethereum.

Bitmine’s total Ethereum holdings have risen to about 4.04 percent of total supply. Bitmine continued buying Ethereum even after listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on April 9. Over the past 30 days, only two Ethereum treasury companies have disclosed Ethereum investments: Bitmine and Exodus Movement.

StrategicEthReserve data show Bitmine is currently the largest corporate holder, with about 4.6 million ETH. Under the strategic Ethereum reserve data, the value of its holdings exceeds $10 billion. Sharplink Gaming follows with 863,000 ETH valued at $1.89 billion.

Bitmine’s moves are drawing attention as it maintains a strategy of continuing to accumulate Ethereum despite widening valuation losses. In this environment, the market will be watching whether Lee’s strong price call leads to an actual rebound and how much tokenisation and agentic AI lift demand for Ethereum.