Can $1,000 in Ethereum turn into $20,000 in 2026?
January 12, 2026
Key Points
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One Wall Street strategist thinks Ethereum could hit a price of $62,000 this year.
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A major catalyst could be Wall Street’s embrace of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.
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While Ethereum has upside potential this year, it is unlikely to soar in value unless Bitcoin is also soaring.
In what has to be one of the most outrageously bullish price predictions of 2025, Wall Street strategist Tom Lee predicted that Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) — currently trading around $3,250 — will skyrocket in value to hit a price of $62,000 in 2026.
That’s a massive 20x increase in price within an incredibly short period of time. If Lee is right, a modest upfront investment of just $1,000 in Ethereum would be worth north of $20,000 within the next 12 months. So is he right?
The key catalyst for Ethereum
A lot depends, of course, on market sentiment. Right now, there’s not a lot of bullish sentiment on Ethereum, which is down 35% from its all-time high of almost $5,000 in August.
But there’s one catalyst that could turn things around for Ethereum: a full-scale embrace of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization by Wall Street.
Ethereum is already the preferred blockchain of Wall Street. It is now shaping up to be the premier blockchain for real-world asset tokenization, which has already been tagged by top consulting firms as a multitrillion-dollar market opportunity.
Where does Ethereum go from here?
Just remember: History tells us that Ethereum is unlikely to skyrocket in value if Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is not also skyrocketing. The correlation between Ethereum and Bitcoin returns over the most recent 12-month period is a very robust 0.75. Over a longer time period, the correlation has been closer to 0.90. In other words, the two cryptocurrencies tend to move together, both up and down.
So keep your expectations in check. As long as Bitcoin is mired below the psychologically important $100,000 price level, then that $62,000 price prediction for Ethereum is unlikely to happen.
Should you buy stock in Ethereum right now?
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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