Survey finds 5% of firms plan to buy bitcoin in 2021

Five percent of companies plan to invest in bitcoin as a corporate asset this year, with a further 11% saying they could take the plunge by 2024, according to a survey of financial executives conducted by Gartner.

It follows the news that Tesla converted 8% ($1.5 billion) of its cash reserve into bitcoin. MicroStrategy, a US business intelligence firm that has led the way with corporate bitcoin investment, announced a $600 million convertible bond offering Tuesday to raise funds to buy even more bitcoin.

Of the 77 respondents, which included 50 CFOs and other executives, the ones in the tech sector were predictably the most keen on crypto, with 50% anticipating holding bitcoin at some point.

The majority of respondents (84%) said their main concern was the crypto’s high volatility.

“Finance leaders who are tasked with ensuring financial stability are not prone to making speculative leaps into unknown territory,” said Gartner chief of research Alexander Bant.

“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.”

Respondents’ other concerns included board risk aversion (39%), slow adoption as an accepted form of payment or exchange (38%), lack of understanding (30%), cyber risks (25%), and complex accounting treatment (18%).

Awareness has increased substantially since Gartner’s 2018 survey, in which just 66% of CIOs had heard of blockchain technology.

Gartner’s report was framed negatively: “Most finance executives not planning to hold bitcoin as a corporate asset.” However, crypto Twitter was quick to flag up the fact that 5% is actually extremely bullish for crypto.

Bitcoin Archive tweeted, “5% of executives expect their companies buy #Bitcoin this year – Gartner Survey. The other 95% are idiots.”

Referring to the expected future price of bitcoin, which at the time of publication was $52,100, YouTuber Lark Davis tweeted, “5% of corporate CFOs are planning to buy #bitcoin this year, 100k is programmed.”