Another U-Turn: Guggenheim CIO Scott Minerd Calls Crypto ‘Tulip Mania’

Scott Minerd – Global Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of Guggenheim Partners – compared the recent crypto market collapse to the ”Tulipmania’ in the 17th century. His current stance came somewhat unexpectedly since not long ago, he predicted a price of $600,000 for Bitcoin.

Crypto Is a ‘Tulipmania’

The recent crypto market crash created an opportunity for numerous investors and influential people to express their predictions about the current state and future price of bitcoin. And while many showed support, some opined highly negatively and even made a complete U-turn on their previous stances.

Such is the example with Guggenheim’s CIO – Scott Minerd. The Chairman of one of the largest investment organizations described crypto as ‘Tulipmania’ in a recent tweet. He went further, claiming that ”supply has swamped demand:”

Crypto has proven to be Tulipmania. As prices rise, tulip bulbs and #crypto currencies multiply until supply swamps demand at previous market clearing prices.

— Scott Minerd (@ScottMinerd) May 19, 2021

In his turn, Robert Leshner – Compound Finance founder – disagreed with Minerd’s tweet. He pointed out that the statement was inaccurate and not economically logical:

”Scott is dead wrong, bordering on financial malpractice. The supply of cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets does not increase as a function of price. That’s like saying the supply of stocks increases, as demand does.”

Bullish in the Past

Minerd’s assessment came as a surprise since he was supportive and bullish in the past. Minerd envisioned a significantly higher future price tag for the primary cryptocurrency:

”Bitcoin is going for $400,000 someday. And they would just talk about Bitcoin, which is telling you something. It’s turning into a bit of a frenzy.”

On another occasion in April this year, Guggenheim’s CIO went further, claiming that the value of the primary cryptocurrency can explode to $600,000. Should BTC indeed skyrocket to this price, its market capitalization will be over $11 trillion – or roughly 5x higher than the world’s most valuable company – Apple. This will place the digital asset on the same playing field as gold.

Nevertheless, the executive also warned that BTC could indeed fall sharply before it heads towards uncharted territory once again.