Tom Lee: $2 Trillion Wealth Shift Could Boost Crypto, Bitmine Buys More Ether

Wall Street veteran Tom Lee expects inherited wealth to fuel crypto demand as his firm Bitmine nears owning 5% of all ether.

A big shift in money could be the next fuel for crypto. That's the message from Tom Lee, a well-known Wall Street expert and chairman of Bitmine, a company that focuses on buying and holding ether.

Lee believes a huge "wealth transfer" — meaning money passing from older people to younger people, often through inheritance — will boost demand for digital assets like cryptocurrency.

Here are the key numbers:

Between 2026 and 2028, an estimated $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion could pass to younger investors (based on IRS and Fundstrat estimates).
Over the coming decades, more than $100 trillion is expected to move from older to younger generations.

Why does this matter? Younger people tend to be more comfortable taking risks and are more likely to put money into crypto and stocks. If even a small part of that inherited money flows into digital assets, it could push prices up — though it's unclear how much will actually end up there.

Bitmine is also buying more ether. Ether (ETH) is the second-biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Last week the company bought another 12,532 ETH, worth about $32 million.

Bitmine now holds 6,028,946 ETH, worth roughly $15.3 billion.
That's about 4.9% of all ether in existence.
Its goal is to own a full 5% — and it could reach that in about six weeks.

Lee said that once Bitmine hits the 5% mark, it will stop buying ether.

The company also earns income through "staking" — a process where you lock up your crypto to help run the network and get rewards in return (similar to earning interest). Bitmine has staked 84% of its ether and expects around $336 million per year in staking income.

In short: Lee sees a mix of inherited wealth, Wall Street adopting blockchain, and companies holding crypto long-term as possible drivers of the next crypto boom.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/12/tom-lee-sees-usd2-trillion-wealth-transfer-fueling-crypto-demand-as-bitmine-buys-more-ether