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Ethereum could head to $60,000, while the biggest tech race in history could propel the entire crypto market into a completely different era. Tom Lee believes that Ethereum could reach $60,000 within the next few years, based on the explosive move that Ethereum made after the 2018 bear market . But he also believes that the current cryptocurrency bull market could be much bigger and longer-lasting than previous cycles, with millions of new investors entering through tokenization, artificial intelligence, regulation and new crypto applications.
And Raul Pal makes even bigger arguments about what comes next. He believes that artificial intelligence has created a technological race that governments and companies simply cannot afford to stop. As the development of artificial intelligence accelerates, the demand for blockchain infrastructure and crypto payments may grow with it.
In this video, we break down Tom Lee's $60,000 Ethereum prediction , why he believes this cryptocurrency bull market could be much bigger than previous cycles, and Raul Pal's arguments on why the AI race may be impossible to slow down. And before we get to that, just a little reminder that only a small percentage of you who are watching are actually subscribed.
If you get value from the video, . And now let's begin. I think if we take a measured step, you know how Ethereum has performed? The last big breakout was, you know, after the 2018 bear market, and then the breakout in 2021, and that was a 17x move for Ethereum. You know, can Ethereum go 10 times higher, 10-12 times higher than its previous highs of 5,000?
I think it's quite possible. And, you know, and then that would take us back up to 60,000. So, I think that's still a reasonable idea of where Ethereum could be in a couple of years. But in the near term, you know, do I think the old highs will present any resistance? I mean, from a psychological perspective, yes, but do I think Ethereum can reach all-time highs this year?
Well, of course. So I think 3,000, you know, in the near term makes sense. And then well above 5,000 by the end of the year, I think makes sense. And of course, I think it's going to be a pretty terrible cryptocurrency bull market. So, I think we're in the early stages, and I think cryptocurrency can grow a lot.
Ethereum could move to a price that seems almost impossible today, $60,000. Tom Lee claims that Ethereum has already demonstrated the kind of explosive movement that could make such a goal possible. He cites a breakout after the 2018 bear market , when Ethereum eventually showed roughly 17x growth in 2021.
If Ethereum makes another surge of this magnitude from its previous major highs, Lee believes that a 10-12x rally above the old $5,000 peak could become realistic within the next few years. This would put Ethereum at around $60,000. And recent market action gives this thesis an important update. Reuters reported in September that ether had broken through a key resistance level after a significant rally in August, with technical targets reaching $3,000 and above.
Institutional accumulation also continued. Bitmain, led by Tom Lee, reported nearly 6 million ether as of September 20, equal to approximately 4.9% of the total supply . Lee also believes that Ethereum could reclaim its previous all-time highs this year and go well beyond $5,000. And if this breakout turns into another major cycle, its $60,000 target will suddenly become the number everyone will be watching.
This is where the larger story of the cryptocurrency bull market begins . I think the cryptocurrency bull market that is starting, we think that is already confirmed. And this is also evident from the rise in the prices of cryptocurrency-related stocks, because they are by far the best performing assets at the moment in the third quarter.
Hmm , I think there is a much larger cohort of new investors coming into cryptocurrency. And I think that's what sets her apart. You know, the 2016-2017 cycle or the COVID cycle that ended in 2021 and then last year's mini-cycle, they had their own specific catalysts, ICOs. And then it was NFTs and meme coins, and then more recently stablecoins.
Hmm, but that was a narrow set of real use cases, and mostly crypto people were coming back after losing money. I think not much money was lost in this bear market . Many levers of influence were destroyed. But with the very widespread adoption of tokenization and then with the regulatory backdrop in favor of cryptocurrencies and of course with government support at a time when, I think, artificial intelligence and its agent systems, and a lot of applications being built around cryptocurrencies, I think it's a much larger universe of people that will be involved.
And I think when we look at the price charts, I think that shows. You know, there has been quite a bit of price consolidation. In some cases, for example, 5 years of price consolidation. So I think when we have this bull market, it will not only be a decisive breakout, but I think the ultimate length and upside potential will be much greater than in previous cycles.
Tom Lee believes that this cryptocurrency bull market could become much larger than the cycles that came before it. He argues that this time around, cryptocurrency is no longer driven by one narrow trend. Previous cycles have had their dominant catalysts ranging from initial coin offerings to non-fungible tokens, meme coins, and stablecoins.
Lee believes the current cycle is different, as tokenization expands, regulation evolves, governments become more supportive, and artificial intelligence creates entirely new applications for blockchain technology. This means that a much larger group of investors could eventually enter the market, and there is already emerging evidence that institutions are paying attention.
Bitmain, led by Lee, reported on September 20 that it owns nearly 5.98 million Ethereum, equivalent to about 4.9% of the total supply . The company also stated that Ethereum was the best performing macro asset during the third quarter so far. Lee also stated that institutional investors remain under- interested in cryptocurrency and expect their exposure to increase during the last 3 months of 2026.
This is important because Lee isn’t just expecting existing crypto investors to return. He describes a market that could attract a whole new class of capital. And if that happens, when years of price consolidation finally come to an end, growth could go far beyond what previous cycles have provided.
This brings us to the technology that Lee believes could make this cycle fundamentally different – artificial intelligence. But before that, rising or falling cryptocurrency with leverage, and get more perkes to CalChains . calchains.com/p/cryptonutshell. Now back to Tom Lee, who explains how AI can transform the economy and why blockchain could be important for AI-powered micropayments .
AI is a truly transformative innovation, isn't it? One could argue that as an economy, it is actually a third input factor because, to put it simply , the economy has historically been a combination of labor supply and capital supply, i.e. productivity , which essentially equals economic output. So people needed to feed crops throughout their life cycle, and then it took 18 years to create a human unit, you know?
Or there could have been immigration, and then capital demanded technology and innovation. So, these are all the levers of the functioning of the economy. Now there's this third lever–it's AI that has equivalent human capabilities, but doesn't take 18 years to grow or cultivate, or it doesn't come from immigration.
And if you add robots, physical AI, or robotic capabilities, it looks like an alien invasion. It's like ... You know what I mean? It's like it's literally a third being. Um, I think this could really change the economy, and I think it would be very difficult for economists to measure GDP right now because if robots are doing transactions and then they are doing value-added work.
The only way to track their activities is either the profit for the owners of these robots or the taxes paid. But you can suddenly see the economy grow faster than that. And so I think it's very innovative. And of course, you know, people will want to stay informed . And I think for them to stay on top of things means, you know, you're going to need blockchains.
And mainly for processing micropayments. I mean, in practice, it's probably much cheaper to make payments via cryptocurrency. The next major driver of this crypto cycle may not come from traditional investors at all. It may come from cars. Tom Lee describes artificial intelligence as the third economic contributor alongside labor and capital.
For most of modern history, economic growth has depended on human workers , investment, technology, and the time required to create a productive workforce. AI changes this equation, as software can now perform increasingly complex tasks without requiring years to develop as humans do. Then physical AI appears.
As robots become capable of performing real-world work, Lee sees an economy where machines can potentially interact directly with other machines. This creates a problem that traditional financial systems were not designed to effectively address. How does an AI agent pay another AI agent? A machine may need to carry out thousands of tiny transactions without human intervention.
It can automatically purchase computing power, data, energy, software services, or access to another machine. Lee argues that blockchains could be extremely useful for this, as crypto networks can process digital payments without requiring every transaction to go through traditional financial intermediaries.
This is where Ethereum enters the bigger picture. If AI agents increasingly transact with each other, the number of digital economic interactions could increase dramatically. Blockchain will not just be a place where people speculate on assets. It can become the financial infrastructure for an economy where software itself participates in commerce.
This will create a completely new source of demand for crypto networks. And if AI adoption accelerates, as Raul Pal expects, Ethereum's potential market could become much larger than today's crypto economy. This leads directly to Raoul Pal's argument about why the AI race may be unstoppable. fast, looking at charts or headlines.
You'll get online. AI is the most powerful technology we have ever discovered. This is great technology. We just created intelligence. Not only that, all the intelligence that we have been able to understand and measure has always been generated on a carbon substrate , humans, animals, plants, anything that generates some form of intelligence.
We have moved from substrates to silicon. And it's a million times faster, so we're shocked at how quickly it's evolving. Substrate of intelligence, we are now conducting electricity through sand and generating superintelligence. This is just madness. But this race is so big that no one can be allowed to lose.
And now I'm talking about the race between China and the USA. Imagine a world where China wins this race because the US is slowed down by regulation or something else. Well, then China, as it accumulates intelligence, the rate of intelligence per joule of energy accumulated is doubling every 4.2 months.
So if you're a little bit behind and China is still accelerating, you're 3 years behind, you'll never be able to catch up. So you end up with one nation-state or sovereign state with the most powerful technology the world has ever seen. This cannot be allowed. And it cannot happen that the US has it either.
Because this is also not a balanced world. So, by the definition of game theory, you both have to accelerate, and they can't stop. Because even if they say the other one will stop, he won't stop. Because the game is too big to lose. So no one can win it, and no one can lose it. No one can afford to lose.
But the same thing happens with advanced laboratories. They say, "Oh, you have to regulate us, blah blah blah." The game is too big to lose. They must accelerate . They have to spend all the money. Every country, every lab, everyone has to spend everything on this, because this is the greatest race of all time.
If you lose this race. If you lose this race, or even if you only lose a few months in this race, you will never catch up. If you not only never catch up, you will lose control of the planet and beyond . has become too important for the world to simply slow down. His argument begins with a dramatic shift in the nature of intelligence itself.
For most of human history, intelligence was created through biological systems. Now, computing is creating another form of intelligence using silicon. And Raul argues that this allows progress to happen at a radically faster pace. That's why he sees the competition between the United States and China as so important.
Raoul argues that if one side stops accelerating and the other continues, the gap could widen until it becomes extremely difficult to catch up . He believes that neither side can afford to simply walk away from the race, as the strategic implications would be huge. Current events show why this competition remains intense.
In September, Reuters reported that artificial intelligence is a central issue in relations between the United States and China, as both countries view AI as an important element of economic and military power. Chinese AI companies also continue to invest heavily in models and domestic computing infrastructure.
Raoul's broader point is that this creates an environment where investment in AI continues to accelerate. Frontier laboratories need more computing power, countries need more energy, and companies need infrastructure capable of supporting increasingly powerful systems. This is directly related to cryptocurrency.
If AI agents are to become economically viable , they will need a digital infrastructure capable of moving value between machines. Raul has repeatedly argued that blockchain networks could become part of this infrastructure as the economy becomes increasingly digital and autonomous. His latest article continues to view AI as part of an accelerated technology cycle .
And if this cycle continues to accelerate, the opportunities for cryptocurrency could expand along with it. Tom Lee and Raoul Pal ultimately point to the same, much larger possibility. The next big expansion of cryptocurrencies could be driven by an economy that looks very different than the one we have today.
Lee's argument is that artificial intelligence introduces a new economic force. As artificial intelligence systems become more powerful and robots begin to perform physical work, machines can eventually transact with other machines. This creates a demand for infrastructure capable of handling ongoing digital payments, including tiny transactions that traditional financial systems were never designed to handle efficiently.
This is where blockchain becomes important. Ethereum could potentially serve as part of the financial infrastructure for this machine economy, especially if AI agents need to automatically purchase computing power, data, software, or other digital services. Raoul develops this argument even further.
He believes that the competition to develop increasingly powerful AI systems is so significant that countries and companies have huge incentives to accelerate further. More AI means more computation, more infrastructure, more transactions, and potentially more demand for the digital networks capable of supporting this activity.
Combine these ideas, and the bullish thesis about cryptocurrency becomes much bigger than just another market cycle . Ethereum is not just valued as a speculative asset. It can become part of the infrastructure connecting an increasingly automated digital economy. And if the AI race continues to accelerate, and cryptocurrency adoption expands with it, the $60,000 Ethereum scenario will be part of a much larger opportunity.
The next crypto boom may be driven by an economy that has barely begun to take shap.
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