Tom Lee Highlights This Detail in Ethereum’s Rally: Not Even Fed Pressure Could Stop It!

BitMine Chairman Tom Lee said Ethereum outperformed the S&P 500 by 68.32 percentage points in the third quarter despite a hawkish Fed outlook and tightening financial conditions.

In comments reported by The Block, Lee described Ethereum’s performance in the third quarter of 2026 as a development that overshadowed other macro assets. In his view, what made the gap remarkable was that the rally took place in a challenging environment for markets.

What pressures did Ethereum withstand?

Lee listed the Fed’s hawkish stance, rising oil prices, increasing global bond yields, and tightening financial conditions among the pressures that stood out during the quarter. He particularly emphasized that Ethereum outperformed the S&P 500 index, which tracks major U.S. companies, in that environment.

The 6,832-basis-point gap Lee cited equals 68.32 percentage points and represents the difference between ETH’s return and the index’s return. Thus, his assessment focused not only on Ethereum’s rise but also on its performance relative to traditional markets over the same period.

At the time of The Block’s report, Ethereum was trading at about $2,711. ETH was up 0.37% on the day, with gains of more than 10% over the past month and more than 50% over the past three months. These figures for the recent period were reported separately from Lee’s comparison for the calendar quarter.

BitMine’s Ethereum holdings top 6 million

Lee’s comments came alongside BitMine’s weekly Ethereum buying update. The company bought 15,112 ETH over the past week, bringing its total holdings to 6,016,414 ETH; it reported that 5,067,309 ETH of that total was staked.

Based on an annualized yield of 2.63% calculated from the past seven days of data, BitMine projects annualized staking income of $363 million. This figure reflects the company’s estimate based on current yield conditions.