Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee delivered a rare bearish alert for Ethereum on Oct. 13, warning that the sharp sell-off in South Korean equities could spill into crypto and trigger further ETH selling. Lee said the decline in Korean stocks is likely spilling over into crypto, citing brokerages' margin liquidations and the large share of crypto held by South Korean investors. "Short-term pain," Lee wrote, specifically highlighting ETH.
The warning came as South Korea's benchmark KOSPI dropped more than 6% on Tuesday, driven by heavy selling in technology and semiconductor stocks. The Korea Exchange triggered a sell-side sidecar at approximately 9:48 a.m. local time after KOSPI 200 futures fell more than 5%, but the intervention could not prevent a wider sell-off. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were among the most affected names as concerns grew over China's progress in memory chips, particularly from ChangXin Memory Technologies. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also fell 2.67% in the last session.
Despite the short-term caution, Lee shared a longer-term bullish outlook. He pointed to IRS and Fundstrat estimates that between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion in wealth could change hands from 2026 through 2028. Lee said younger inheritors are likely to have a higher risk appetite for crypto and equities, which could support the next crypto bull market. He also named Wall Street tokenization efforts, the rise of AI applications, and crypto treasury companies as additional drivers. "We see the potential for this to be the largest ever crypto bull market," Lee said.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought another 12,532 ETH last week, bringing its total to 6,028,946 ETH worth about $15.3 billion. That represents about 4.94% of ether's 122.1 million token supply, leaving the company roughly 76,000 ETH short of its 5% accumulation target. Bitmine has staked 84% of its ETH, or 5,067,309 ETH valued at about $12.9 billion, and projects $336 million in annualized staking revenue, with that figure expected to reach $400 million once all its ETH is staked. In total, Bitmine's crypto, cash and other holdings were worth $16.2 billion as of Oct. 11.
