Ethereum Pulls Back to $2,100 as Oil Pressure Clashes with AI Tokenization Hopes

Ethereum is trading near $2,100 on May 19 after a near-10% weekly decline that erased May gains. The pullback follows record inverse correlation with surging oil prices, with Brent crude near $111 per barrel, alongside $340 million in six-day spot-ETH ETF outflows and aggressive exchange inflows. Tom Lee continues to frame the weakness as short-term macro noise while reiterating a $9,000–$12,000 year-end target driven by tokenization and agentic AI.