Turkey’s
deputy prime minister on Wednesday warned investors against betting on
cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
“Bitcoin
surpasses tulip mania, which was the biggest asset bubble in the history of
finance,” Mehmet Simsek said on Twitter, referring to the 17th-century Dutch
craze for tulips.
While
the price of Bitcoins can suddenly can rise to an extreme level, "it can
also collapse later," he warned.
Tulip
mania took ahold of the Netherlands in the 1630s when prices of the flower
bulbs rose sky high before collapsing in a spectacular fashion.
Simsek’s
warnings come in the wake of bitcoin’s skyrocketing value -- up more than 1600
percent in the year.
(Anadolu Agency)