Russia's Largest Bank Caught Employees Mining For Crypto

The largest state-controlled bank of Russia and the third major bank in Europe Sberbank has restated that it is not mining cryptocurrencies. However, the bank stated that it has often caught its employees involved in crypto mining through bank’s equipment. Sberbank Claim It Is Not Mining Crypto The bank owns a large number of graphic cards that can be utilized for cryptocurrency mining. In November 2017, Senior Vice President of the bank, Alexander Vedyakhin, apologized publicly for causing the shortage of graphic cards in the market. Since admitting scooping up of the most of the graphics cards on the domestic marketplace, Sberbank has maintained that it is not mining cryptocurrencies with them. Instead, Vedyakhin claimed these cards are for the bank’s “laboratory for the development of artificial intelligence,” On Wednesday (7th February 2018), the head of Sberbank, Herman Gref, restated at the “Leaders of Russia” forum that Sberbank is not mining cryptocurrencies on a commercial level. However, the publication quoted him declaring that “We purchased graphic cards of a slightly different configuration. Sberbank is not engaged in crypto mining, but we often catch employees who are engaged in mining on the bank’s equipment. Gref explained that he believes the bank is not engrossed in mining because it is a primitive business, adding that “I can tell you a dozen other investment objects with higher yields.” Involvement with Cryptocurrencies At the end of January, Sberbank declared that its subsidiary in Switzerland will begin offering cryptocurrency trading. This Swiss part of the plan is to “avoid breaching domestic regulations.” Russian regulators are functioning on finalizing the official outline for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). Gref recently stated that he opposes the ban on cryptocurrency & calls for tolerance & patience in their guidelines. He said “BEFORE TRYING TO LEGALIZE, YOU DO NOT NEED TO HUSTLE, BUT YOU DO NEED TO MAINTAIN A USUAL BACKGROUND AROUND THE TECHNOLOGIES OF BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY.”