Survey: most corporate CFOs not planning to buy bitcoin

While bitcoin continues to rise in popularity, a survey of 77 finance executives (including 50 CFOs) in February 2020 has revealed that 84% of respondents do not plan to ever hold bitcoin as a corporate asset, according to Gartner. Only 5% of finance executives polled said they plan to hold bitcoin as a corporate asset in 2021.

Alexander Bant, Chief of Research in the Gartner Finance practice, noted that 84% of the respondents said that bitcoin’s volatility posed a financial risk, adding that it would be difficult to mitigate the kind of price swings seen in cryptocurrency in the last five years.

Alongside volatility, other top concerns that respondents had included board risk aversion, slow adoption as an accepted form of payment, regulatory concerns, and a lack of expertise in cryptocurrencies.

“There are a lot of unresolved issues when it comes to the use of bitcoin as a corporate asset. It’s unlikely that adoption will increase rapidly until we get more clarity on these challenges,” said Bant.

The survey found that 71% of respondents said one of the top things they’d like to know is what others are doing with bitcoin; 68% want to hear more from regulators about bitcoin and better understand the risks involved with holding it.

“It’s important to remember this is a nascent phenomenon in the long timeline of corporate assets. Finance leaders who are tasked with ensuring financial stability are not prone to making speculative leaps into unknown territory,” said Bant.

Even the 16% of respondents willing to adopt to cryptocurrency showed no rush, with 5% of respondents indicating they would begin to hold bitcoin in 2021, 1% saying they’d hold bitcoin at some point in 2022–2023, and the remaining 9% indicating that they would begin holding bitcoin in 2024 or later. The survey also found no difference in intent to hold bitcoin between small organisations (less than $1 billion in revenue) and large organisations (more than $1 billion in revenue). Additionally, 50% of respondents from the technology sector anticipate holding cryptocurrency in future, while 7% of private company finance executives saying they will hold it.

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