Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine (BMNR) and co-founder of Fundstrat, said the cryptocurrency bear market may be over, arguing that a new cycle driven by tokenization and artificial intelligence-driven financial services is starting to take shape.
Speaking at the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami on Thursday, Lee noted Bitcoin’s The recent strength is a historical sign that the market has broken away from the downward trend that saw prices drop from $126,000 in October to $60,000 in February.
Following positive monthly returns in March and April, BTC is up another roughly 5% so far in May, which would mark the third consecutive month of positive monthly returns.
“If Bitcoin closes three months in a row, you’ll never enter a bear market,” Lee said. “If Bitcoin closes this month above $76,000, the bear market is definitely over.”
The CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index closed at $76,300 in April, while the asset is currently trading just below $80,000.
Lee said investors are still psychologically focused on the last cryptocurrency downturn and are underestimating the strength of the current rally. He also pointed to bullish technical signals from veteran trader John Bollinger, who recently said his trend model has turned positive for Bitcoin.
In addition to the bullish narrative, Lee also pointed out that software stocks – which have been hit hard by concerns about artificial intelligence disrupting their business models and the recent upgrade of Fundstrat – have historically traded closely with Bitcoin. Lee added that crypto assets have performed better than most traditional markets since tensions between the United States and Iran escalated, with Ethereum (ETH) leading the way.
Tokenization and AI agents drive the next cycle
Driving the next bull run in cryptocurrencies are two megatrends disrupting finance: the migration of all assets to on-chain (known as tokenization) and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) agents on blockchain rails.
Li believes that AI agents will need funds to autonomously transfer value, and to do so, they will increasingly rely on blockchain networks and tokenized financial systems.
He pointed to the adoption of stablecoins as evidence that the transition has already begun. Stablecoin trading volume has surpassed Visa payments, he said, while pointing to Grayscale’s report that the $300 trillion securities market will eventually migrate to the blockchain track as tokenized assets.
“Networks that host a lot of tokenized activity will capture economic value,” Li said.
This shift, he believes, could fundamentally reshape financial economics itself. Lee compared JPMorgan Chase, which is expected to have 300,000 employees and earn about $60 billion in revenue this year, to companies such as stablecoin issuer Tether. Trading giant Jane Street generates similar levels of profit using only a fraction of its workforce.
“Homegrown digital companies using blockchain for settlement eliminate a lot of processes and people,” he said.
In Lee’s view, crypto-native financial companies may increasingly resemble the internet companies that have supplanted traditional media and telecom giants over the past two decades.
“Within ten years, half of the world’s largest financial institutions will be natively digital,” he said.
Update (May 7, 17:01 UTC): Added presentation slides citing Tom Lee’s 2026 Consensus keynote.
