Lee and Hayes Stand Firm on $10K Ethereum Forecast

Both analysts see the move as a natural continuation of Ethereum’s long consolidation since 2021, and Lee suggested the network is entering “price discovery at a new level.” While historical data points to a more modest year-end target close to $5,000, there is still optimism among market watchers. At the same time, Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade went live on the Sepolia testnet. The upgrade raises the block gas limit and introduces PeerDAS technology, and is expected to prepare the network for its mainnet launch in December. 

Ethereum Could Hit $10K

BitMine chair Tom Lee and BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes are holding firm on their bullish Ethereum predictions. They maintain that the cryptocurrency will reach $10,000 before the end of the year despite a turbulent market and less than three months remaining in 2025. 

On the Bankless podcast, Lee said he expects Ethereum to land somewhere between $10,000 and $12,000, while Hayes is confident in a $10,000 target. He said he intends to “stay consistent” with his forecast. With Ethereum currently trading around $4,094, the projection represents a potential 140+% gain, which is a bold call given the market’s recent volatility.

<iframe width=”560” height=”315” src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/FpO2RllR7b8?si=L_KyqGHdbEriCOBd” title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0” allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>

Lee argued that such a move will not be irrational exuberance but rather a natural progression after years of consolidation. He described Ethereum as having been “basing” since 2021, and pointed out that it spent almost four years in a wide range after peaking at $4,878 that year. 

According to Lee, Ethereum’s recent price action shows it  just broke out of that long-term range, paving the way for what he calls “price discovery at a new level.” He added that while a move to $10,000 will be a major milestone, it would likely not be the ultimate top for Ethereum, but rather a “happy level” on the path to future growth.

Hayes and Lee’s forecasts were made shortly after a sharp market crash that wiped out over $19 billion in leveraged positions across the crypto landscape. Ethereum has since shown resilience by recovering from around $4,350 before the drop to just below $4,100. However, historical data paints a more modest picture. 

Ethereum quarterly returns (Source: CoinGlass)

According to CoinGlass, Ethereum’s average return in the fourth quarter since 2016 stands at 21.36%. If that pattern holds, Ethereum could end the year near $5,000 — which is still far below Hayes and Lee’s projection. 

Other analysts, including Tesseract CEO James Harris and MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe, are also optimistic. Harris predicted a year-end target near $6,500 and van de Poppe suggested the ETH/BTC pair’s recent drop offers an ideal setup for a push toward new highs.

Fusaka Upgrade Hits Ethereum Testnet

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade successfully went live on the Sepolia testnet, which is a huge milestone in the network’s mission to boost scalability and efficiency. This activation is the second stage of a three-phase rollout, following the earlier deployment on the Holesky testnet on Oct. 1. 

Developers are now stress testing Fusaka’s enhanced data-availability system and higher block gas limits before moving to the final Hoodi testnet later this month. Once complete, the upgrade is expected to pave the way for a mainnet release in December.

The Fusaka roadmap introduces several performance and consensus improvements that are designed to make Ethereum faster and more capable of handling complex activity. A key feature of the upgrade is the planned increase of the block gas limit to 60 million, which will enable each block to process more transactions and smart contract operations. 

(Source: Datawallet)

Ethereum developers are using Sepolia to evaluate whether nodes can handle this higher capacity without compromising stability or network security. Gabriel Trintinalia, a protocol engineer at Consensys and a core developer for the Besu client, said that the client teams worked extensively to make sure the current node setups can manage the heavier load of 60 million gas blocks without triggering instability.

Another major innovation under Fusaka is Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), a new system that allows validators to verify transaction data by sampling small portions from multiple peers instead of downloading all the data themselves. This greatly reduces the data burden on nodes and improves scalability and maintaining decentralization. Paul Harris, a core developer at Consensys’ Teku client, explained that PeerDAS is a fundamental shift in how Ethereum handles data availability as it allows scaling “beyond what was possible before.”

(Source: Datawallet)

The Ethereum Foundation announced the Fusaka testnet rollout plan in late September, and described this upgrade as the next step after the Pectra update earlier this year. Pectra introduced new functionality for externally owned accounts, raised the validator staking limit, and expanded data capacity per block. It followed other key milestones, including Dencun in March of 2024, and The Merge in 2022, which transitioned Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.