Bitcoin has seen its value increase to unprecedented heights this year, yet despite this U.S. finance leaders remain sceptical, with many believing that it’s a fraud.
According to a CNBC Global CFO Council survey, it found that 27 percent of the 43 respondents to the survey see the digital currency as a fraud. A further 27 percent stated that while it was a ‘real’ asset, it was in a bubble, and only 14 percent indicated that it is ‘real and still going higher in value,’ reports CNBC.
On the 29th November, bitcoin saw its price rise as high as $11,488, according to CoinMarketCap, pushing its market total to $191.9 billion for the first time. This meteoric increase soon saw the digital currency’s value drop to $9,300, the following, during a major selloff. Since then, however, it has managed to claw its way back up, and is currently trading at $10,689, data from CoinMarketCap shows.
Interestingly, regardless of the fact that bitcoin is gaining dominance and is becoming ever more mainstream, more than half of the survey’s respondents had a pessimistic view on it. Additionally, a third of respondents stated that they didn’t know enough about bitcoin to form an opinion despite the fact that it being reported on in mainstream news.
However, while some are adamant that they won’t be embracing the digital currency regardless of how far high it goes, others are becoming more curious as to its potentials.
So much so, that at the end of last month, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the CEO of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, said that it was wrong for Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, to dismiss bitcoin. He added that people should be more ‘open-minded’ when it comes to the digital currency and the technology behind it, the blockchain.
Yet, even after saying this, he admitted that he remains ‘still on the fence‘ with it.
Whichever way you look at it, though, bitcoin and the digital currency market are going to receive negative press. After all, the whole idea behind them is to remove the power from established financial institutions. What may have been a small, of-no-concern, issue to banks during bitcoin’s early days of existence, is now becoming something that needs to be addressed.
As a result, the director of the European Central Bank (ECB) recently called on central banks to introduce instant payments to ward off the competition from the crypto market.