Bitcoin was hammered by top business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but those in the cryptocurrency world had a message of their own.

Cryptocurrencies were one of the biggest topics at the Forum. There was an official session on it, CNBC ran a few panels about the subject in The Sanctuary, and there was even a dedicated spaced called Crypto HQ, which focuses on blockchain technology.

While the potential of blockchain, the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies, was praised, bitcoin got slammed.

"There is no intrinsic value for something like bitcoin so it's not really an asset one can analyze. It's just essentially speculative or gambling," Stephen Poloz, the governor of the Bank of Canada, told CNBC Thursday.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller told CNBC ahead of Davos that it may be around for 100 years, though it's more likely to collapse.

"(Bitcoin) might totally collapse and be forgotten and I think that's a good likely outcome but it could linger on for a good long time, it could be here in 100 years," Shiller told CNBC.

Bitcoin's reputation as a currency that is primarily used for illicit activities still lingered too.

"The fact that the anonymity, the lack of transparency and the way in which it conceals and protects money laundering and financing of terrorism and all sorts of dark trades is just not acceptable," Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said during a panel talk in Davos earlier this week.