Household Crypto Holdings Included in Bank of Russia’s Consumer Finance Survey

The Central Bank of Russia has added crypto asset holdings of households to its survey of consumer finances. The statistics reveal that Russian families keep more money in cryptocurrency wallets than in gold investment accounts or mutual funds.

Russia’s Central Bank Evaluates Cryptocurrency Holdings of Russian Households

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR) has published estimates about the digital assets held by the population in the newest edition of its report on household finances. The survey is conducted once every two years since 2013 and the latest results covering 2022 were released on Friday.

According to the document published by the monetary authority, the median average of the fiat value of crypto holdings, among Russian households that possess such assets, is 17,500 rubles (around $225 at current exchange rates). Median means that over half of these families, or people who live together and share the same budget, have more crypto funds than the cited threshold.

The survey has been conducted among over 6,000 households and more than 12,000 individuals in 32 Russian regions. 70% of the respondents were polled in the period May – June 2022, RBC Crypto noted in a report. In late 2021, the CBR said that the annual volume of crypto transactions made by Russians amounts to around $5 billion.

A little over 65% of the households had financial assets, the researchers established. The median amount was 15,700 rubles (approximately $200). 64.5% of them keep money in bank accounts and the median average is 15,000 rubles.

Another finding is that only 0.4% of the surveyed families have made investments in cryptocurrencies. While this is a small portion of the sample, the number is nevertheless larger than that of the households who have put money into shares in mutual funds or investment accounts for precious metals, 0.3% in each case.

Around 1.6% of the households in the CBR study store value in stocks and bonds, with a median average of 26,500 rubles. Another 1.2% of the respondents have declared having electronic wallets holding a median average of 1,000 rubles.

What are your thoughts on the findings of the new Russian survey? Let us know in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.