Tom Lee responded to the controversy surrounding the conflicting outlook with Fundstrat, emphasizing that different analysts have different responsibilities and timeframes.

PANews reported on December 21 that, in response to conflicting outlooks on Bitcoin from Tom Lee and his Fundstrat analyst, a user claiming to be a Fundstrat client, Cassian, posted that the interpretation of this debate was unfair and misleading. Tom Lee retweeted and replied, "Well said."

Cassian believes that the company's executives do not base their work on a single, unified forecast, but rather work according to different investment objectives, differentiating between long-term macroeconomic views, portfolio-level risk management, and technical analysis. Farrell's comments reflect a defensive positioning strategy focused on drawdown risk, capital flows, and cost basis, rather than a long-term bearish view on Bitcoin. Cassian states that Farrell has reduced the proportion of cryptocurrencies in its Fundstrat model portfolio for risk management reasons, while remaining optimistic about the long-term adoption trend beyond early 2026.

In contrast, Tom Lee's role focuses more on macro liquidity cycles and structural shifts in the market, including institutional investor adoption and how ETFs are changing the dynamics of Bitcoin's historical four-year cycles. Technical analyst Mark Newton's perspective, on the other hand, is entirely based on chart patterns rather than a macro narrative.