Ethereum could be headed toward $7K to $9K by early 2026, according to prominent Wall Street analyst Tom Lee. His thesis? The institutional push to tokenize real-world assets directly on-chain is about to reshape the crypto landscape.

What's driving this? Think about it—major financial institutions are increasingly exploring blockchain-based asset tokenization. When trillions in traditional assets start migrating onto Ethereum's network, the demand for network activity and ETH itself naturally spikes. Lee goes even further, setting a longer-term target of $20K per token, suggesting he sees massive runway ahead.

The narrative ties tokenization adoption directly to Ethereum's value proposition as the primary settlement layer for digital assets. Whether this plays out depends on regulatory clarity and enterprise adoption pace.