Tom Lee Says Ethereum Has Never Failed This Pattern and Expects Another V-Shaped Recovery

BitMine bought roughly $83 million in ETH this week, even as Ethereum struggles to reclaim $2,000-mark.

Ethereum has remained volatile since October, while the sell-off intensified over the last month. Fundstrat head of research Tom Lee said investor frustration around the leading altcoin’s recent weakness overlooks a long and consistent historical pattern of sharp declines followed by equally rapid recoveries.

In fact, he believes that the bottom is near.

Ethereum Near the Bottom?

While speaking at a conference in Hong Kong this week, Lee said that since 2018, Ethereum has experienced drops of more than 50% on eight different drawdowns, including a steep 64% fall between January and March last year. In every one of those instances, ETH formed a “V-shaped bottom,” recovering fully and doing so at roughly the same pace as its decline. From his perspective, this track record indicates that the current drawdown does not represent any change in Ethereum’s outlook, and he expects another V-shaped bottom to emerge following the latest sell-off.

Lee also cited BitMine market analyst Tom DeMark’s assessment, who believes Ethereum may need to revisit the $1,890 level to form a “perfected bottom.” Lee added that, based on BitMine’s assessment, ETH appears to be very close to such a bottom, as he drew parallels to previous downturns in late 2018, late 2022, and April 2025.

While Lee refrained from pinpointing the exact low, he argued that the magnitude of the decline itself is more important, and that investors should be thinking in terms of opportunity rather than offloading their stash.

“If you have already seen a decline, you should be thinking about opportunities here instead of selling.”

BitMine Is Buying

His comments came as Ether prices fell to $1,760 on February 6, as it approached the 2025 low of almost $1,400. So far, ETH has continued to struggle to reclaim the $2,000 level after a more than 36% drop over the past 30 days. As weakness in the market continues, BitMine, the ETH-focused treasury firm chaired by Lee, purchased roughly $83 million worth of ETH this week.

It executed two large buys of 20,000 ETH each via institutional platforms BitGo and FalconX, even as its existing holdings remained significantly underwater.

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Meanwhile, the drawdown has already led to large-scale portfolio adjustments. For instance, Trend Research, a trading firm led by Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi, fully exited its Ethereum positions and closed what was once Asia’s largest ETH long. The firm had built roughly $2.1 billion in leveraged ETH exposure but ultimately realized losses of about $869 million after unwinding its positions despite Yi reiterating a bullish long-term outlook just days earlier.