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Imagine paying $750,000 for a single tulip bulb. Sure, it’s a “broken bulb” that will yield a beautiful striped pattern once the flower blooms, instead of a solid color, granted, only for a few days. And yet, you paid $750,000 in today’s money. Sound ludicrous, right? Well, it’s part of the Tulip Mania of the 1600s, and, more and more, we read comparisons between it and today’s NFT craze.
There’s no denying that the NFT market has seen some crazy stuff (shoutout to Cryptopunk #8857). This market has traditional billionaires uncomfortable in their piles of cash. There’s also no denying that NFTs have a place in our lives. In that sense, they have an advantage over tulips, but there’s one aspect of the Tulip Mania that I find fascinating.
Let’s go back in time to the early to mid-1600s. The tulip came to Holland as part of trading routes and the spice trade, and it was a flower unlike any the Dutch had seen. It was beautiful and unique, so, of course, it became an object of desire and aspiration. Soon, the tulip became a symbol of wealth. So the Dutch middle class started craving the flowers as well.
Soon, speculation and greed took over the country. From 1600 to 1634, tulip prices increased to an all-time high. Records show that the best tulips could fetch $750,000 in today’s money. Meanwhile, the average…
