Tom Lee sees Ethereum $9K–$12K as Binance Inflows rise
Tom Lee predicts Ethereum will reach $9,000–$12,000 by year-end. Early-May on-chain data shows Binance received about 439,850 ETH (~$1.02B) and holds roughly 3.62M ETH.
Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, projected Ethereum would trade between $9,000 and $12,000 by the end of the year at the Consensus Miami conference. He paired the ETH forecast with a Bitcoin projection of $150,000 to $200,000 and cited tokenization and agentic artificial intelligence as growth drivers.
Lee’s target would require roughly a 415% gain from recent prices near $2,323.
Another market commentator posted a public forecast calling for Ethereum to reach $10,000 to $15,000 in this cycle.
On-chain data shows large inflows to Binance in early May. The exchange received 216,152 ETH on May 6 (about $511 million), 98,552 ETH on May 8 (about $224 million) and 125,146 ETH on May 9 (about $288 million), a total near 439,850 ETH, or about $1.02 billion. Binance’s reserves are now roughly 3.62 million ETH, about 24.6% of ETH held on centralized platforms.
Analyst Darkfost wrote that “Some degree of short-term instability remains among large ETH holders.” The analyst noted the transfers occurred while price was entering corrective phases and characterized the moves as appearing driven by emotional reactions rather than calculated profit taking. Darkfost added that the pattern could explain why Ethereum has been in a consolidation phase for several weeks.
Lee previously projected ETH at $10,000 to $12,000 by the end of 2025. Ethereum traded near $4,946 in August 2025 before prices fell sharply in October 2025.
Market participants point to tokenization products and institutional activity on Ethereum when forecasting higher prices. Analysts also identify macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions as factors that could affect price momentum.
