‘A little bit like the tulip mania’: Crypto markets show more signs of excess

In financial markets filled to the brim with froth, one of the more speculative corners is showing signs of bubbling yet again.

Bitcoin rebounded from its sharp sell off last week which saw prices plunge more than 12%, the steepest weekly drop since last March. The digital asset bounced back from below $30,000 Friday to trade around $34,400 as of 10:22 a.m. Monday in New York.

“It’s a little bit like the tulip mania where people are putting a price on it and the next person puts a higher price on it,” said Jerry Braakman, chief investment officer of First American Trust, in Santa Ana, California, which manages around $2 billion. “So it has value because people want it. Can that sustain itself? It can until it loses its luster and something else comes along that might be better and all of a sudden you have the flip effect.”