Trend Research ‘Bullish’ buys $35M Ether to reach $1.8B by 2026
Update Dec 29, 1:40 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include the latest $48 million purchase from Trend Research.
Hong Kong-based investment firm Trend Research continues to pile on Ether as one of the largest corporate ETH holders expects a major fall in the first quarter of 2026.
Trend Research has acquired $35 million in Ether (ETH), pushing its holdings from more than 601,000 ETH to $1.83 billion, according to blockchain data platform Lookonchain.
The company's decentralized lending protocol Aave has lent a total of $958 million in stablecoins, with an average purchase price of about $3,265 per ETH, Lookonchain wrote in a Monday X post.
Trend founder Jack Yee said he was “bullish” on crypto for the first half of 2026 and vowed to keep buying Ether “until the bull market comes,” a “top position in ETH” and a “heavy” position in the Trump family-linked World Freedom Financial (WLFI) token.
He added, “2026 will be an area with overall positive issues like on-chain finance, stable coins, devaluation cycles, crypto policies.”
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While BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate ether holder, is dollar-cost averaging, Trend Research has pledged to continue to mine ether regardless of “fluctuations of a few hundred dollars.”
Trend Research is the third largest holder of Ether behind Bitmine and SharpLink Gaming, but as an unlisted company, it does not appear on most tracking websites, including StrategicETReserve.
Trend Research acquired another 16,078 Ether worth $48 million on Monday, surpassing the total ETH holdings of 607,828, blockchain data platform Arkham reported.
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FundStrat calls $1,800 ETH down, while Smart Money is short the ETH price.
Yi's optimism contrasts with perceptions shared by Fundstrat Global Advisors, which predicted that Ether would fall to around $1,800 in the first quarter of 2026.
On December 21, Fundstrat co-founder and managing partner, Tom Lee, released screenshots of an internal research note that predicted a “meaningful decline” in the first half of next year.
“My base case is a meaningful decline in 1H 2026, with BTC falling to $60k – $65K, ETH to $1,800 – $2,000, and SOL to $50-$75. These levels provide attractive opportunities through year-end.”
The same note suggested that the market could form a “durable low” in the first or third quarter before converging towards the end of the year, resulting in a shallower bear market than in previous cycles.
The bearish forecast came as a surprise to investors, as Lee is the chairman of Bitmine, the largest corporate owner of Ether with about $12.3 billion in ETH holdings.
Meanwhile, the industry's most successful traders, tracked as “smart money” traders on Nansen's blockchain intelligence platform, continue to bet on Ether's short-term price decline.
Smart funds were short a total of $117 million in Ether, but added $15 million worth of long positions over the past 24 hours, indicating a modest recovery in risk exposure from this key group, Nansen data showed.
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