Ethereum Price Flirts With $3000 As Tom Lee’s Bitmine Buys Another $88.1M In ETH

The Ethereum price edged down by over 1% in the past 24 hours to trade at $2,976 as of 01:07 a.m. EST, with trading volume surging 22% to $19.8 billion.

This comes even as institutions and whales continue to bet big on Ethereum, as the token flirts with the $3,000 level.

According to Lookonchain data, Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies has reportedly acquired another $29,462 in ETH tokens, worth approximately $88.1 million, from BitGo and Kraken.

BitMine bought $302 million worth of ETH last week, bringing its total ETH holdings to around 4.09 million tokens.

Meanwhile, shifts in crypto market narratives are increasingly very bullish on Ethereum, Solana, and stablecoins, as adoption expands beyond a single asset, according to predictions by Bitwise Asset Management in its 10 Crypto Predictions for 2026 report.

The conviction comes from structural demand drivers rather than short-term price dynamics. Ethereum continues to anchor decentralized finance activity, stablecoin issuance, and tokenized real-world assets.

While institutions remain bullish, can Ethereum’s price soar to break above $3,000?

Ethereum Price Poised For A Break From A Consolidation Zone

The ETH price is currently at a crossroads, as investors remain cautious after the asset formed a rounded top pattern from July to late November.

As the Ethereum price formed the rounded top pattern, the top hit a new all-time high in August of $4,946. The drop thereafter may be due to investors booking profits.

The sustained drop to the support level around $2,700 was further fueled by the Simple Moving Averages (SMAs) forming a death cross around $3,545. ETH now still trades below both the 50-day (3,095) and 200-day ($3,579) SMAs, cementing the bullish outlook.

After hitting support, ETH has been consolidating, capped by the $3,400 resistance, as it attempts to break out.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) supports this narrative, with the RSI trending in an equilibrium, currently at 45. This shows that bears and bulls are presently in a tug-of-war for dominance.

ETH/USD Chart Analysis: TradingView

ETH Price Prediction

According to the ETH/USD daily chart analysis, the ETH price is at a crossroads.

If bulls push for a recovery and the Ethereum price breaks above the upper boundary of the sideways pattern, the next key resistance will be the 200-day SMA at $3,579, followed by the supply zone at $4,189.

This sentiment is supported by the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), which has just turned positive, after the blue MACD line crossed above the orange signal line, confirming the bullish case. The green bars are also starting to form above the zero line, confirming rising momentum.

Conversely, if the ETH bears continue to act on the rounded-top bearish signal, the price could drop even further below the consolidation area, with the $2,600 area acting as a cushion against further downward pressure.