Wall Street's Tom Lee Says This 'Most Hated' Rally Could Be A Fortune-Maker—And Bitcoin at $250K Isn't Out Of Reach
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When Wall Street veteran Tom Lee speaks, investors listen. As head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, Lee has built a reputation for bold predictions and contrarian calls that often prove prescient. In a recent CNBC interview, the market strategist delivered a compelling case for why current market skepticism could create generational wealth opportunities—and why his eye-popping Bitcoin price target might not be as crazy as it sounds.
Lee describes the market’s recent rebound as the “most hated V-shape bounce in history,” pointing to a critical disconnect between market performance and investor sentiment. During what he calls “April tariff Armageddon,” fear of recession drove massive liquidations, leaving most investors underexposed when markets staged their dramatic recovery.
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This positioning creates an unusual dynamic: strong fundamentals meeting widespread skepticism. “Most investors are currently underexposed,” Lee notes, suggesting significant upside potential as sentiment eventually catches up to reality.
Challenging the narrative that stocks have become dangerously overvalued, Lee presents compelling valuation data. Despite enduring what he characterizes as “six extinction-like events” over the past six years—including COVID-19, supply chain disruptions, inflation surges, aggressive Fed rate hikes, Trump tariffs, and geopolitical tensions—S&P 500 earnings have actually grown.
More surprisingly, the equity-weighted S&P multiple has compressed from approximately 17.6 times in 2019 to 16 times currently. This suggests the market has become cheaper even as earnings demonstrated remarkable resilience through unprecedented challenges.
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While much attention focuses on the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants, Lee offers a contrarian take on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). He believes the iPhone maker has been “quietly ready to pounce on AI” and will “surprise people” with its approach.
Drawing parallels to Apple’s transformative but late entry into smartphones with the 2007 iPhone launch, Lee suggests that when Apple decides to “play big in AI,” it will “change the game.” He emphasizes Apple’s competitive advantages in safety, privacy, and user experience optimization—particularly valuable if large language models become commoditized.
The strategist also supports speculation around Apple’s potential foldable phone launch this fall, noting that larger screens drive users toward “computing and something much higher capability,” aligning with augmented reality applications in the AI era.
Lee identifies stablecoins as the “ChatGPT moment for crypto,” highlighting their growing adoption by businesses, consumers, and major financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Citigroup (NYSE:C). This trend creates significant opportunities for Ethereum, which hosts the majority of stablecoins and generates over 30% of its network fees from this activity.
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With Ethereum approaching a $4 trillion market valuation, Lee sees substantial upside. While technical analysis suggests near-term targets around $5,000, he believes valuation metrics similar to Circle could justify prices between $10,000 and $20,000.
Perhaps Lee’s boldest call remains his Bitcoin price target of $200,000 to $250,000, which he maintains “still makes sense.” His reasoning is straightforward: this would value Bitcoin at just 25% of gold’s market size. Looking further ahead, Lee reiterates his belief that Bitcoin “should be worth over a million per bitcoin” and that this “could happen in the next few years.”
Lee’s message is clear: current market skepticism, combined with resilient fundamentals and emerging technological shifts, creates compelling investment opportunities. Whether through traditional equities trading at compressed multiples, Apple’s potential AI breakthrough, or cryptocurrency’s institutional adoption wave, patient investors willing to look past short-term noise may find themselves positioned for significant gains.
As Lee emphasizes, his goal at Fundstrat remains helping clients “find good ideas and make money”—and his track record suggests these contrarian insights deserve serious consideration.
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This article Wall Street’s Tom Lee Says This ‘Most Hated’ Rally Could Be A Fortune-Maker—And Bitcoin at $250K Isn’t Out Of Reach originally appeared on Benzinga.com