The Ethereum price broke above $2,500 on its strongest week of 2026, a 29% surge, and the biggest buyer in the market answered by loading up harder. Tom Lee’s Bitmine grabbed 32,447 ETH worth $81 million, lifting its treasury to 5.85 million ETH worth $14.6 billion according to CoinDesk.
Lee pointed out that only two weeks in history matched this move, and each one launched a rally above 160%. So $10,000 Ethereum is back on the table. But that is a 4x stretched over years, and the money that refuses to wait keeps landing on Pepeto, where $10.83 million is lined up behind the same kind of multiple ETH once handed its earliest holders.
Nobody became wealthy buying Ethereum at $2,478. They became wealthy buying it before an exchange ever carried it, and Pepeto is holding that exact door open until the Binance debut shuts it.
What you'll learn 👉
Bitmine’s $81 Million Buy Turns the Ethereum Price Rally Into a Conviction Signal
Bitmine now holds 4.8% of every ETH in circulation, roughly 187,000 tokens short of its 5% goal per CoinDesk. The company has bought ETH for 60 weeks straight since June 2025, and 87% of that stack sits staked, on track for $330 million in yearly income.
Spot Ether ETFs added $71.47 million on August 18, with BlackRock’s ETHA taking $64.68 million. But here is the part that matters most.
The largest ETH holder on earth sped up its buying into a 29% rally instead of taking profit, and institutions only do that when they believe the move is starting.
The Ethereum Price Path to $10,000 and the Presale Moving First
Pepeto: Standing Today Where Ethereum Itself Once Stood
Two paths are opening as you read this, and the money is already choosing. Over $10.83 million settled into Pepeto during the weakest sentiment of the year. Nobody buys that way by accident, so this is capital that already modeled what comes next.
First time hearing about it? Pepeto is an Ethereum-based meme project that no exchange carries yet. Presale is the stage before that, and it keeps the entry exclusive right up until launch day. The developer who took Pepe to $11 billion is behind this one. And the parallel is hard to miss, because Ethereum was once a token nobody could buy on an exchange, available at $0.31 to whoever found it early.
The gap between then and now is the products. PepetoSwap already trades without charging a fee. Contract reading software flags exploits before any transaction clears. Bridging between three chains is free. SolidProof reviewed all of it before launch, and the timeline came from a Binance architect.
Holders earn 164% APY for committing before the window tightens further, and that rate drops steadily as more supply locks up. So the reward and the entry both shrink the longer anyone waits. Ethereum buyers at $0.31 are up more than 8,000 times, and every one of them bought before an exchange set the price. Pepeto is at that exact stage now, with a Binance debut positioned to end it. ETH needs quarters and three catalysts to reach $10,000. One debut day does for Pepeto what those quarters do for ETH.
Ethereum (ETH) T190
ETH trades at $2,478, up 3.24% in 24 hours and roughly 29.55% on the week according to CoinMarketCap. Support sits at $2,300, resistance holds at $2,550, and a break targets $3,000 and then the $4,953 record.
Standard Chartered calls for $4,000 by year-end, Tom Lee puts the range at $7,000 through $9,000, and $10,000 stays live if ETF flows, Glamsterdam, and macro all click.
Our analysis rates $10,000 genuinely reachable, since ETH at that level carries a $1.2 trillion valuation and Bitcoin proved this market can support one. The catch is time. Getting there spans quarters and needs three catalysts to land, which is why buyers hunting one-event returns are filling the Pepeto presale instead.
Conclusion
Ethereum reaching $10,000 is doable in this cycle, but only after catalyst piles on catalyst across many months. Pepeto shortens that math, offering the upside assets this large need years to produce, and it is sitting there today. From here the paths split. Down one, buyers holding before the Binance debut own the entry the market has not priced yet.
Down the other, everyone who waited pays full exchange rates for what early buyers secured while it was still this attractive.
Consider what that gap is worth: ETH sold at $0.31 before any exchange carried it and trades at $2,478 today, so $1,000 then is over $8 million now. Pepeto sits on Ethereum at that same pre-listing stage, and the Binance debut is the moment it closes.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs
Can the Ethereum price reach $10,000 this cycle?
The Ethereum price can reach $10,000 this cycle if ETF inflows, the Glamsterdam upgrade, and macro conditions align, per targets from Tom Lee and Standard Chartered. The 29% weekly rally, the strongest since May 2025, matched two prior setups that each ran past 160%.
Why are Ethereum buyers also taking Pepeto positions?
ETH at $0.31 made fortunes for whoever bought before the exchanges did, and that entry never came back. Pepeto sits on Ethereum at that same pre-listing stage, and $10.83 million is already inside.
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