Poll: Most predict Bitcoin bubble

More than half of the financial industry professionals surveyed in a new poll believe the virtual currency bitcoin is in a bubble and will soon crash back to Earth.

The current trading price of about $620 per bitcoin is unsustainable, according to 55 percent of the investors, analysts and traders surveyed in the Bloomberg poll. They said that after a 45 percent drop from a high of $1,100 per bitcoin late last year, there’s little reason to trust the virtual money.

{mosads}Another 14 percent said bitcoin was on the verge of a bubble. Only 6 percent denied that a bubble was forming, while 25 percent of the respondents were unsure.

Since the high of $1,100, the price of a bitcoin plummeted to a low of $360 before rebounding this year.  

The poll results indicate continuing skepticism in financial circles about the money, which only exists virtually and has gained public attention in recent months.

Though some business like Overstock and DISH TV have begun accepting bitcoin, the currency is still foreign to the vast majority of the public.

What little the public has heard about bitcoin has also largely been negative. High-profile arrests of top bitcoin evangelists for money laundering and the collapse of Mt. Gox, a major early exchange, have rattled some nerves around the country and on Capitol Hill.

The fears are not preventing everyone on Wall Street from staying out, however.

In fact, many major investment banks and payments companies have at least begun to eye the nascent currency, which supporters say could revolutionize the way people spend money in an increasingly connected world. Analysis from Goldman Sachs, for instance, concluded that bitcoin “likely can’t work as a currency” but could “hold promise” for some purposes.