Tom Lee Sees $2 Trillion Wealth Transfer Boosting Crypto Demand as Bitmine Buys More Ether

Bitmine's chairman said he expects young investors to increase demand for digital assets as his company's Ethereum treasury nears ownership of 5% of total supply.

$2,528.05 Bitcoin Ether BMNR $24.04 Tom Lee, chairman of Treasury Inc., said he sees a wave of inherited wealth flowing to younger investors as a potential driver for the cryptocurrency bull market.

Lee, a Wall Street veteran who also founded financial research and asset management firm Fundstrat in 2014 and serves as its chief investment officer, pointed to estimates from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Fundstrat that show between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion in wealth will change hands from 2026 to 2026.

"The ongoing wealth transfer is expected to support the future cryptocurrency bull market as those inheriting wealth are younger and likely to be more risk-averse to cryptocurrencies and stocks," Lee said in a statement on Monday.

His comments were echoed by Vlad Tenev, CEO of digital brokerage Robinhood, who said in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer last month that more than $100 trillion in wealth is expected to be transferred from older to younger generations in the coming decades.

The idea is that younger investors may put more of their legacy money into cryptocurrencies than previous generations, adding another source of demand. However, it is unclear how much of this wealth actually goes into digital assets.

Lee also pointed to Wall Street's growing use of blockchain technology to represent financial assets, the rise of artificial intelligence applications and crypto-treasury companies that hold tokens for the long term as possible drivers of a new rally.

Lee's comments came alongside the latest update on Bitmain's crypto holdings, which showed the ethereum treasury company is moving closer to its goal of owning 5 percent of the token's supply.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies BMNR of $24.04 last week raised another 12,532 ETH worth approximately $32 million at Monday's price.

The purchase brought its holdings to 6,028,946 ETH, worth approximately $15.3 billion. That's roughly 4.9% of the 122.1 million Ether token supply, leaving the company about 76,000 ETH away from its goal of holding 5%.

At last week's pace, Bitmain could reach that goal in about six weeks.

Lee said last week that the company plans to stop accumulating ETH after reaching the 5 percent mark. Since switching to an Ether-focused strategy in June 2025, the company said it has been buying ETH every week.

Bitmine held about 5.07 million ETH, or 84% of its holdings, and is projecting roughly $336 million in annual shareholder earnings at current yields.

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