Guggenheim CIO Calls Bitcoin a ‘Tulipmania’

Yerevan (CoinChapter.com) – Scott Minerd, the Chief Investment Officer of the multi-billion dollar investment firm Guggenheim Partners has made a dramatic U-turn. Known to be one of the believers in Bitcoin, his latest criticism is unlike his former statements.

In a tweet reaction to the market crash that raised eyebrows, Minerd went against his predictions, going as far as calling Bitcoin a ‘Tulipmania.’

What is Tulipmania?

At the start of the 17th century, everyone in the Netherlands had become mesmerized with tulips.

The flower is not native to the country and was introduced in the late 1500s. It soon became coveted by all and was a demanded trading product in the country. The interest for the Tulips was so huge bulbs were sold at exorbitant prices.

Owing to its high market value, Tulips even began to replace money as a form of currency. It is said that in 1633, properties were sold for just a handful of Tulip bulbs. Then, overnight, the value for Tulips crushed.

The phenomenon is now famous as Dutch ‘Tulipmania’. Critics of the cryptocurrency compare the crypto craze to Tulipmania.

Scott Minerd is not the only person to make this comparison. In 2017, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase had made a similar comparison calling Bitcoin a “fraud”.

“It’s worse than tulip bulbs,” he had said. “It won’t end well. It will blow up.”

However, Minerd was not always this pessimistic. Back in February, the Guggenheim CIO believed Bitcoin could eventually climb to $600,000.

In an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterley in February of this year, Minerd had quoted his multi-billion-dollar investment firm Guggenheim’s fundamental research to back his claim.

Bitcoin “has come into the realm of respectability and will continue to become more and more important in the global economy”, Minerd had said.

Minerd Faces Criticism

As soon as Minerd tweeted, critics lined up to remind him of his former plans to invest millions in the most famous cryptocurrency.

“Dude, wasn’t your company going to invest hundreds of millions into #bitcoin?”, reminded a user.

Meanwhile, either Minerd has changed his mind about Bitcoin, (as he often does), or his tweet is a calculated move to cause the prices to drop so his company can acquire more Bitcoins at lower rates.

As it stands, Bitcoins is recovering from the latest dip that saw the prices go as low as $34,756.64 in the past 24 hours.