Tulip Mania

A speculative frenzy in the Dutch Republic during 1636-1637 when tulip bulb prices soared to extraordinary levels before collapsing dramatically. At the peak, a single rare bulb could cost more than a canal house in Amsterdam. Often cited as the first recorded financial bubble, Tulip Mania is the go-to historical analogy whenever critics want to warn about speculative excess in any asset class, from dot-com stocks to cryptocurrencies.