Following a market crash in October, Bitcoin has decoupled from gold and underperformed the precious metal, dropping to approximately $86,000. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee attributes crypto’s weakness to a previous liquidation event and a rally in metals drawing investor interest away. Meanwhile, his firm, Bitmine Immersion, has staked over half of its substantial Ethereum holdings.
The cryptocurrency market has struggled to regain bullish momentum since a sharp decline in October. Bitcoin has underperformed gold in 2025 and early 2026, recently trading near $86,000 after decoupling from the precious metal.
Ethereum’s price has remained range-bound between approximately $2,800 and $3,200 since November. It retested the lower end of this range following Bitcoin’s recent dip.
Tom Lee, founder and head of research at Fundstrat and chairman of Bitmine Immersion, commented on the situation. He cited the last liquidation cascade and the metals rally as key factors.
“The precious metals’ move has sucked a lot of oxygen out of the room,” Lee stated. “But when fundamentals go to the right, prices do follow.”
He further explained that investor fear of missing out on gold and silver is impacting crypto. “As long as gold and silver rise, there’s FOMO to buy that instead of BTC,” Lee concluded.
Bitmine has staked over half of its holdings of more than four million Ethereum. The firm recently staked an additional 209,540 ETH worth approximately $610 million.
This brings its total staked Ethereum to over 2.2 million coins, valued at roughly $6.5 billion. That represents 52% of its overall holdings.
Despite price lag, Lee believes Ethereum will catch up to its fundamentals. Key liquidity levels to watch are near $2,980 and $2,850 based on weekly liquidation data.
