Russians are increasingly taking loans secured by graphics cards used for cryptocurrency mining. This is reported by RBC, citing data from the Federal Notary Chamber (FNP).
Over five years, the number of records for these devices in the movable property registry has doubled to 1600. The increase over the past year was 13%.
The FNP database also recorded 15,400 notifications of collateral involving the word “robot”: a 17% increase over the year, and a 2.4-fold rise since 2019.
The most popular collateral among Russians remains cars and other vehicles. As of early September, they account for more than half of the records—11.6 million out of 20.3 million.
In the first eight months of 2024, 2.3 million new entries were added to the notary register, a 35% increase compared to the same period in 2023.
Since the beginning of the current year, loans amounting to over 10.2 trillion rubles have been granted to borrowers from the small and medium-sized business category. In contrast, they received 15.9 trillion rubles throughout 2023.
The FNP attributes the increase in figures to the development of entrepreneurship.
Russian banks began issuing loans secured by mining farms in November 2017.