Passive Income with Mintos: Loans, Bonds, Real Estate & ETFs in One App (Deep Dive 3/5)

Imagine there were a single app for passive income – and inside it you could invest across completely different asset classes: loans, real estate, bonds, distributing ETFs and other interest products. That's exactly what the Latvian platform Mintos promises. Over the past few years it has evolved from a pure P2P lending marketplace into a genuine multi-asset platform. In part 3 of my Mintos Deep Dive we look at precisely this: how good is Mintos really for passive income – and what options do you actually have there?

A quick bit of context: I'd describe myself as a cash-flow investor. A large part of my portfolio is built for passive income – through dividends from stocks, rent from real estate and interest from P2P loans. I've been on Mintos for over five years and have built up a portfolio of more than €13,000. As always, the important note upfront: this is not investment advice and not a buy recommendation. I'm only showing my personal opinion and my personal investments. I'm responsible for my money, you for yours – and with P2P in particular the risks are significant, a total loss is possible.

Mintos is no longer just a P2P marketplace

Mintos used to be one thing above all: a marketplace for P2P loans. Today you can invest in six different asset classes from a single account – and most of them deliver exactly what I'm after: ongoing, passive income.

Here's how that looks in my own account. At the reporting date it stands at €13,247.35, spread across the asset classes – the largest share in loans, plus bonds, real estate and small test positions in Mintos shares and ETFs:

Before we go into the individual building blocks, here's the full overview: which asset class exists, the minimum you can start with, the realistic return – and whether the building block is suited to passive income.

Building block 1: Loans – the core of Mintos

Let's start with what made Mintos big: loans. This is also my main focus – around €10,000 of my Mintos portfolio is in loans. While Mintos originally launched as an unregulated P2P platform, today it is licensed under MiFID II and is an investment firm. As a result, the loans are regulated securities: several loans are bundled into a Note, and you invest into that Note. (I explained in detail how this protects you in an insolvency in part 2 on safety and regulation.)

To get into loans you have three ways – from fully hands-on to fully automated:

I use the Core Loans myself – a pre-defined, fully automated portfolio you barely have to manage. It's the most beginner-friendly option. In my account it currently looks like this: around €9,286 invested, an average interest rate of 9.3% and €929.84 earned over the years.

What returns are realistic? If you really hand-pick individual loans, the range runs from about 6% to 18–19%. On a weighted average, though, 9 to 10% is realistic – I'm at roughly 9.2–9.3% myself. And you always have to understand: loans can default. That's why it's so important to diversify broadly and to keep only a fraction of your wealth on any one platform. Even within Mintos there are many different lenders and funding partners – it makes no sense to put everything on a single one.

An additional protection on most loans is the 60-day buyback obligation. If a loan is 60 days overdue, the loan originator must repurchase the package – so you get your money back:

It's a strong extra promise, but not a guarantee: if the loan originator itself gets into serious trouble, you can still be left sitting on your money.

The nice thing for passive income: with loans you can diversify broadly even with small amounts from €50. I'm invested in over 6,000 loans – which means interest comes in practically every day, whether it's Monday or Sunday. That, for me, is one of the nicest forms of passive income. Even so, never forget the risks: credit risk, currency risk and the like are real.

Building block 2: Bonds – similar to loans, with coupons

The second asset class for passive income is bonds. They work very much like loans and are likewise regulated instruments: you lend a company money and receive interest in return. You can start from as little as €50 in individual bonds.

Just like with loans, there's also a fully automated portfolio here – the High-Yield Bonds portfolio, which I use myself. In my account that's currently €2,097.36 in portfolio value at an average return of 8.74%:

Because the portfolio automatically spreads across many bonds, you receive coupon payments every few days – i.e. ongoing interest payments. This is what a single day of automatic investments into very different bonds looks like:

For context: Mintos itself currently reports a slightly higher average return for the High-Yield Bonds portfolio (around 9%). Realistically I'd put bond portfolios in a rough range of 8 to 10%.

Building block 3: Real estate – rent and capital growth from €50

The third building block is real estate, which has been on Mintos for around one to two years. The interesting part: you invest in fractions of properties – from just €50. Technically these properties are also Notes, i.e. securities, structured similarly to the loans.

You can benefit twice over: once from the rent and once from the capital appreciation (each pro rata for your share). I'm invested with a little over €1,000 and receive rent every month across the various properties. If a property is sold later, I also share in the increase in value. In my account these are currently four rental apartments with expected annual returns between 7.03% and 9.5%:

Realistic returns here are 7 to 9.5%, combining rent and capital growth – my personal portfolio currently sits at 8.72%. What's crucial to understand, though, is the term: it's usually between 10 and 25 years, so very long. You're not completely locked in, because there's a secondary market where you can sell your shares to other investors. But the question is always how liquid that secondary market is at any given time. So the rule is: never invest money here that you might need again at short notice.

Building block 4: ETFs – over 1,000 of them, from €1 and no order fee

The next building block is particularly interesting: ETFs. Since recently you can genuinely pick the ETF you want to invest in on Mintos – previously there was only a ready-made ETF portfolio. Now you have the choice of over 1,000 ETFs.

The best part: there's no order fee, and you can invest from as little as €1 (fractions included). It gets interesting for passive income when you go for distributing ETFs – for example a Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield. That way you build up additional passive income through dividends. It actually fits this Mintos portfolio concept rather well.

Building block 5: Smart Cash – a money market fund at up to 2.25%

The fifth building block is Smart Cash – essentially a money market fund (backed by an AAA-rated BlackRock fund). It has by far the lowest return of all the building blocks, currently up to 2.25%, but it's considerably more liquid than any other product on Mintos. You can think of it a bit like a savings account – for money you want to park short term.

One important difference from a savings account: a savings account comes with statutory deposit insurance, a money market fund does not. A money market fund is a very conservative investment, but it is not a deposit-insured account. For money you happen to have sitting in the Mintos universe and don't want to invest elsewhere, up to 2.25% is still attractive – you can access it any time. Away from Mintos, though, there are currently also savings-account offers with somewhat higher rates.

Building block 6: Crypto ETPs – interesting, but not passive income

Finally, there's one more asset class: crypto via crypto ETPs. To be fair: it's cool that the option exists – but for passive income it's nothing. You (still) can't stake crypto here, so there's no ongoing income. You only benefit from price gains. For passive-income investors, that makes it the clear exception on this list.

What does Mintos cost?

Fees don't feature much in the video, but for completeness here are the key figures (as of 09/2026, per the Mintos fee page):

Product	Fee
Core Loans	0.39% p.a.
Custom strategy	0.29% p.a.
High-Yield Bonds portfolio	0.39% p.a.
Smart Cash	0.19% p.a.
ETFs (buy/sell)	€0 order fee
Selling on the secondary market	0.85%
Inactivity	€4.90 / month

The returns quoted above are generally to be understood after these fees. The inactivity fee only applies if you don't use your account at all for an extended period.

A good moment right now: up to €500 bonus

If you want to try Mintos yourself, right now really is a good time: via my link with the code INVEST26 there's currently a tiered welcome bonus of up to €500 – until 30 September. The exact bonus depends on the amount you invest. After that there's a maximum of up to €350 bonus (with the code GO-LENNARD).

Cumulative investment	Bonus
from €1,500	€20
from €2,500	€35
from €5,000	€75
from €10,000	€175
from €25,000	€500

I've summarised all the details, deadlines and eligible products in a dedicated article: Mintos INVEST26 in detail.

For transparency: this is a referral link. If you sign up through it, I receive a small commission – and it doesn't cost you more. On the contrary, you secure a bonus you wouldn't otherwise get, and you support my channel.

Conclusion: Is Mintos good for passive income?

For me the answer is: yes – Mintos can be genuinely interesting for cash-flow fans. We have several asset classes that generate passive income: above all the loans (a realistic 9–10%), plus bonds (roughly 8–10%), real estate with rent and capital growth, distributing ETFs and the very liquid Smart Cash. Because I spread across thousands of positions, something comes in practically every day – exactly the kind of passive income I'm after.

But – and this matters to me: just because there's passive income, Mintos is not the be-all and end-all investment. Investments in loans, bonds and real estate always carry risks you have to keep an eye on. If you're aware of those risks, Mintos can definitely be an interesting addition to a portfolio – otherwise I wouldn't be invested there myself with over €13,000. My take: in the loans, bonds & co. space maybe a 5–10% allocation, but never the core building block of the portfolio.

That was part 3 of the deep dive. If you missed the start: in part 1 I transparently show my complete Mintos portfolio, and part 2 covers safety, regulation and taxes. In the coming parts we'll look at the pros and cons in more detail.

Now I'm curious about your view: do you use Mintos for passive income streams, and what have your experiences been? Let me know in the comments. You'll find all current P2P promotions bundled in my P2P bonus overview.