The craze for tulips in the 1630s was over in just three years. Bitcoin’s survived for 17 years and still refuses to stay down. This week saw this comparison resurface on social media.
Bitcoin is often compared to 17th-century Dutch tulip bulbs because both saw explosive speculative price surges with little underlying utility at the time.
Critics call Bitcoin a bubble destined to pop and never recover, just like tulips did in 1637. Supporters counter that unlike tulips, which crashed once and died forever, Bitcoin has already survived 6–7 massive crashes over 17 years and keeps hitting new all-time highs. Therefore, the tulip analogy no longer fits.
Eric Balchunas from Bloomberg is also not buying the tulip comparison anymore. Over the weekend, the analyst noted that Bitcoin has experienced numerous setbacks but has consistently rebounded to reach new highs. “I personally would not compare Bitcoin to tulips, no matter how bad the sell-off,” Balchunas said on Sunday, aiming at critics who keep dusting off the 1637 analogy.
Michael Burry, the famous investor who predicted and profited from the 2008 housing market crash, thinks differently. He labelled Bitcoin “the tulip bulb of our time” on a podcast recently. “It’s ridiculous—worse than actual tulip bulbs because it fuels criminal activity,” he said. Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of J P Morgan Chase, said something similar in 2017, calling Bitcoin “a fraud”.
What Actually Happened With Tulips
Dutch merchants became obsessed with tulip bulbs imported from Turkey in the 1630s. Prices shot up so fast that by 1636, rare bulbs sold for more than Amsterdam houses. Then everything collapsed in 1637—prices dropped over 90% in weeks. The whole thing lasted about three years and became history’s textbook example of a speculative bubble.
But Balchunas sees Bitcoin differently: it surged 122% in 2024 and gained 250% over the past three years, with the recent pullback simply a healthy cooldown from overheated gains. Speculative bubbles, like the tulip one, die after one major hit and do not ever recover. But Bitcoin has faced regulatory crackdowns, exchange failures, and geopolitical issues, only to climb back stronger each time.
