Survey: CFOs Think Bitcoin Is 'Real' But Are Divided on Price

Chief financial officers (CFOs) around the world seem to distrust bitcoin, according to a CNBC survey published Tuesday.

CNBC received 43 responses from their Global CFO Council to a survey about their views bitcoin, with 12 of these respondents stating that it was “real but in a bubble,” and a further six saying it was “real and still going higher,” according to their results.

Another 12 respondents said they believe bitcoin is a fraud, with the remainder responding that they do not know enough about the cryptocurrency to say anything.

More CFOs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa think bitcoin is in a bubble than in the United States or the Asia-Pacific regions, according to the survey. Similarly, more CFOs in the former areas responded with the “fraud” moniker.

Roughly 21% of American CFOs think bitcoin is in a bubble, compared to about 29% in the Asia-Pacific area.

One of the CFOs on CNBC’s council, Solvay executive Karim Hajjar, said he was unsure about bitcoin.

He told CNBC:

“It's not a currency we are using for a multibillion dollar business … it's something we are curious about, we are very very open to, but we haven't found a way to really integrate it into our business.”

Solvay would have to establish how to sell bitcoin before they would allow a customer to conduct a transaction using it, he said.

CNBC’s results somewhat echo a survey of institutional traders conducted by brokerage firm Triad Securities and Datatrek Research published last week. In that survey, 39% of respondents think bitcoin is in a bubble, with a further 27% saying its price increase would slow down.