Russian Bank Sberbank Linked to Cryptocurrency Mining
Russian Bank Sberbank has been recently linked to cryptocurrency mining. The bank has denied mining cryptocurrencies itself, but said that some of its employees have been using bank equipment with the purpose to mine digital currencies.
Sberbank often found employees mining cryptocurrencies with bank equipment
The largest bank in the country, Sberbank reportedly has a large amount of graphics cards which can be used for mining cryptocurrencies. And it seems that employees have taken advantage of this. The bank claimed that at corporate level there is no mining activity.
The bank itself said that it has no interest in cryptocurrency mining and previously claimed that the graphics cards were purchased with the purpose to serve the bank's laboratory for the development of artificial intelligence.
“We bought [graphics] cards of a slightly different configuration. Sberbank is not engaged in mining, but we often catch employees who are engaged in mining on the bank’s equipment.”
However, Sberbank is not against cryptocurrencies. In fact, the bank's subsidiary in Switzerland has previously announced its decision to start offering cryptocurrency trading. As in Russia, the regulations that will be in place for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings are still under discussions, most likely Sberbank will not take a similar stance for the moment in this country.
The fact that Sberbank is not against cryptocurrencies was also confirmed by the Chairman of the board, Herman Gref, who recently stated that he opposes a ban on cryptocurrencies. Gref called for tolerance when it comes to regulation on the cryptocurrency market.
