BitMine chair Tom Lee and BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes remain firm in their prediction that Ether will reach $10,000 this year, even amidst a recent downturn in the crypto market and with less than three months left in the year.
“For Ethereum, somewhere between [$10,000] and $12,000,” Lee stated during the Bankless podcast on Tuesday, when questioned about his price expectations for the end of the year.
Hayes, who also joined the podcast, expressed he is “going to stay consistent” with his $10,000 forecast for year-end.
With Ether (ETH) priced at $4,129 at the time of this update, reaching $10,000 would indicate a roughly 142% increase, a goal both Hayes and Lee believe is achievable, even as a conservative estimation, for the remainder of the year.
Lee believes Ethereum has been “basing” since 2021
Lee pointed out that such a substantial rally wouldn’t signify excessive market exuberance, as Ether has predominantly been consolidating within a range since hitting an all-time high of $4,878 in 2021. “Ethereum’s basically been basing for four years now, just broke out of the range, so to me, it wouldn’t be a blow-off top, but rather aiming for price discovery at a new level,” Lee noted.
Ether only briefly reclaimed the 2021 highs in August this year, before pulling back and not revisiting that level since.
“I believe there will be substantial fundamental developments next year,” Lee added, “I don’t think we’re at the peak, but I recognize it as a significant level, potentially a favorable one.”
Both Hayes and Lee have been predicting a considerable rise in Ether’s value since the start of this year.
Past data suggests a different story: $5,000 is plausible
Their forecasts followed Friday’s market crash, which resulted in over $19 billion in liquidations across the crypto landscape and a widespread drop in cryptocurrency valuations.
Ether, trading near $4,350 before the crash, is now valued at $4,129 at the time of this article.
Related: ETH down 6.7% after crypto ‘Black Friday,’ showing more resilience than altcoins
However, historical data implies that Ether’s year-end target may be around half of what Hayes and Lee are predicting.
October 1 marked the beginning of the fourth quarter, a period that has historically yielded average returns of 21.36% for Ether since 2016, according to CoinGlass.
A similar gain from its current value would see the asset move closer to the $5,000 mark by year-end. This estimate aligns more closely with the conservative projections of other analysts, including Tesseract CEO James Harris, who anticipates it will reach about $6,500.
Some analysts speculate that Ether might soon achieve new all-time highs. MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe noted that Sunday’s drop had the ETH/BTC pair fall to 0.032, which was an “ideal zone for buys.”
Van de Poppe mentioned in a Tuesday X post, “It needs a higher low and then we’re off toward new highs.”
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