Woofun AI reports that Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat and chairman of Bitmine, stated in a WebX 2026 speech that Ethereum is at a key juncture similar to the second-stage growth of Amazon, Nvidia, and JPMorgan Chase. He noted that ETH has progressed from the ICO and NFT eras, reaching highs of $4866 and $4955, to a current price of approximately $1732, which he defines as "market abandonment in the bottom area."

Lee identified four pillars for future ETH 2.0 growth: a new Ethereum Foundation governance structure, Agentic AI, a financial settlement layer, and ETH becoming a true currency. He added that Wall Street institutions are expanding their presence by building Layer 2 networks, signaling a migration of the traditional financial system to the Ethereum ecosystem. Bitmine, which planned to hold 5% of global ETH supply over five years, has achieved 95% of this goal in 12 months, currently holding 5.74 million ETH (4.8% of supply), with 4.87 million ETH staked.