This comes down to deciding whether mentioning "Tulips" is a memorable shorthand for discussing all kinds of bubbles, or if we are attempting to use tulips as a

This comes down to deciding whether mentioning "Tulips" is a memorable shorthand for discussing all kinds of bubbles, or if we are attempting to use tulips as a model that we can reason from ("If it's like tulips, then since tulips X, we can expect Bitcoin to also X"). Personally, I take all mentions of Tulip Mania as a kind of memorable shorthand for "Hyper-speculative, with little or no trading on the basis of the underlying utility." Why Tulips instead of houses? Because we as a society have been using the tulip analogy longer, that's really the only reason. It's not an assertion that tulips fit better than houses. It's much the same as expressions like "Grandfathered in." Nobody worries about whether a particular law or regulation is actually being enacted as a way to deprive ex-slaves of their right to vote while guaranteeing it for illiterate whites. To almost everybody, it's just a phrase.