Which investment mania collapsed in 2000, helping trigger the dot-com stock-market crash?

The investment mania that collapsed in 2000, helping trigger the dot-com stock-market crash, was the dot-com bubble.

During the late 1990s, investors poured money into internet-related companies, including businesses with little revenue or no profits. The rapid spread of the World Wide Web encouraged expectations that online commerce would transform almost every industry. Rising share prices attracted still more speculation.

The Nasdaq Composite, heavily weighted toward technology companies, peaked at 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000. It then fell sharply as investors questioned inflated valuations, companies ran out of cash, and many internet businesses failed. The Nasdaq ultimately lost roughly 78% of its value from peak to trough.

The term “dot-com bubble” refers to the speculative boom, while “dot-com crash” describes the subsequent collapse. Some technology companies survived and later became major firms, so the crash did not mean that the internet itself had failed.