A fund analyst at Tom Lee responded to the differing views with Tom Lee: We serve different types of investors, and our strategies have different focuses.

According to ME News, on December 21st (UTC+8), Sean Farrell, Head of Cryptocurrency Strategy at Fundstrat, Tom Lee's fund, responded to questions about a potential divergence between his market views and Tom Lee's. He stated, "Fundstrat employs multiple analysts, each with their own independent research frameworks and different investment time horizons, designed to meet the diverse investment objectives of our clients. My research primarily targets portfolios with a high proportion of crypto assets and employs a relatively more aggressive market strategy. Tom Lee's research mainly serves large fund management institutions and investors who allocate 1%–5% of their assets to BTC and ETH. Such strategies require a high degree of self-discipline and a long-term perspective to grasp structural (long-term) trends in order to achieve excess returns over time. My goal is to help those with a high proportion of crypto assets (approximately 20%)..." Clients and subscribers (and above) have consistently outperformed the market across different cycles through proactive rebalancing. My more cautious view for the first half of the year reflects risk management, not outright bearishness. Current market pricing is almost perfect, but risks remain, including government shutdowns, trade volatility, uncertainty surrounding AI capital expenditures, and changes in the Federal Reserve Chairman, while high-yield bond spreads are tightening and cross-asset volatility is low. Recent fund flows have also shown divergence. Bitcoin is currently in uncharted territory in terms of valuation. In the long term, ETF demand should improve as large brokerages join, but in the near term, it still faces pressure from original holders selling off, miner pressure, the possibility of MSCI removing MSTR, and fund redemptions. My baseline assessment: There may be a rebound at the beginning of the year, followed by another pullback in the first half, providing a more attractive opportunity for year-end positioning. If I am wrong, I prefer to wait for confirmation signals. For investors following 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 and smaller bear market. Previously, Tom Lee stated in an interview that "Bitcoin may reach a new all-time high before the end of January 2026," while Sean Farrell, an analyst at Fundstrat, stated in a report on the 20th that "Bitcoin may fall to $60,000 to $65,000 in the first half of 2026, and Ethereum may fall to $1,800 to $2,000." (Source: ME)