In my understanding, bitcoin and its supporting technology is a monetary system. So, in my opinion, comparing bitcoins with tulips will be similar to comparing Fractional Reserve Banking with tulips.
In analyzing this, it doesn't matter what something purports to be, it matters what it is actually used as. By and large bitcoin is a digital commodity, not a currency. That may well change in the future, but that's not relevant to the analysis.
The increase in dollar value of a bitcoin does not bear any resemblance with an increase in use of bitcoin as a currency.
If anything, there seem to be less hype about using BTC to pay for things these days than a few years back.