Tom Lee's Fund Analyst Responds to Disagreement with Tom Lee's View: We Serve Different Types of Investors with Each Strategy Focused on Different Aspects

BlockBeats News, December 21st, Sean Farrell, Cryptocurrency Strategy Director at Tom Lee's Fundstrat, responded to the statement regarding "a divergence in market views between him and Tom Lee" by saying, "Fundstrat has multiple analysts, each with their own independent research framework and different investment time horizons, aiming to meet the investment objectives of different clients. My research is mainly focused on portfolios with a high proportion of crypto assets and adopts a relatively more aggressive market operating strategy."

Tom Lee's research primarily serves large fund management institutions and investors allocating 1% to 5% of their assets to BTC and ETH. Such strategies require a high degree of discipline and a long-term perspective to capture structural (long-term) trends to achieve excess returns over time. My goal is to help clients and subscribers with a higher proportion of crypto asset allocations (around 20% and above) continuously outperform the market through active rebalancing in different market cycles.

My cautious view in the first half of the year reflects risk management rather than complete bearishness. The current market pricing is almost perfect, but risks still exist, including government shutdowns, trade fluctuations, uncertainty in AI capital expenditures, changes in the Fed chairmanship, as well as tight high-yield bond spreads and low cross-asset volatility. Recent fund flows also show differentiation. Bitcoin is currently in a valuation "no-man's land." In the long term, with the participation of major brokerages, ETF demand is expected to improve, but it still faces pressures such as original holder sell-offs, miner pressure, possible MSTR removal by MSCI, and fund redemptions.

My baseline judgment: there may be a rebound at the beginning of the year, followed by another pullback in the first half of the year, providing a more attractive opportunity for year-end positioning. If the judgment is wrong, I am more inclined to wait for confirmation signals. For investors focusing on this outlook, I still expect Bitcoin and Ethereum to challenge new all-time highs before the end of the year, thus ending the traditional four-year cycle with a shorter, smaller bear market."

Previously, in an interview, Tom Lee stated that "Bitcoin may hit a new all-time high by the end of January 2026," while his Fundstrat analyst, Sean Farrell, stated in a report on the 20th that "Bitcoin may drop to $60,000 to $65,000 and Ethereum to $1,800 to $2,000 in the first half of 2026."