Tom Lee: Rising Oil Prices Keep Pressure on Ethereum

BitMine chairman Tom Lee pointed to rising oil prices as the main headwind for Ethereum after the token fell nearly 10% this week, hitting an intraday low of $2,097 on Binance on Sunday. At press time, Ether traded around $2,116.82, down about 2.9% over the past 24 hours and at its weakest level since April 7.

Lee posted on X that Ethereum’s inverse correlation with crude oil has reached its highest level on record. He wrote: “If one is wondering why Ethereum ETH has been under selling pressure: To me, rising oil prices is the biggest headwind. ETH inverse correlation to oil is the highest ever.”

Brent crude traded near $111 per barrel on Monday, up roughly 16.4% over the past month. Market participants have pointed to higher U.S.-Iran tensions and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz as factors that have tightened supply and pushed benchmark oil prices higher.

Lee described the recent weakness as “short-term tactical noise” and said a reversal in oil’s rally could allow Ether to recover. He also noted that longer-term structural factors for Ethereum remain in place and highlighted tokenization and the emergence of agentic artificial intelligence as themes he expects to influence ETH through 2026.

Earlier this month Lee projected that Ether could reach $9,000 to $12,000 by year-end if those structural trends continue. Traders tracking Ether’s price will likely monitor oil market developments closely given the high inverse correlation Lee identified.