A7A5 Stablecoin Processed $100B in Sanctions Evasion Before Volume Halved
The ruble-pegged token funneled $100B through Kyrgyzstan before US and EU sanctions slashed daily volume by 66%.
The sanctioned ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5 facilitated over $100 billion in cumulative on-chain transactions in under a year, acting as a critical financial rail for Russian entities cut off from SWIFT. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic revealed the scale of the operation Thursday, identifying the token as a primary vector for circumventing Western financial blockades.
The volume is staggering for a regional asset. For context, $100 billion rivals the quarterly settlement volume of some mid-sized traditional payment processors. But the party ended abruptly. Following coordinated designation by the US, UK, and EU, A7A5’s daily activity collapsed from a peak of $1.5 billion to $500 million. A 66% drawdown that signals the efficacy of secondary sanctions on liquidity providers.
The Grinex Connection
The flows were not decentralized. Approximately $17.3 billion of the trading volume occurred on specific exchanges, with the lion’s share routed through Grinex, a Kyrgyzstan-based platform. Elliptic identified Grinex as a successor to Garantex, the sanctioned exchange notorious for laundering ransomware proceeds.
Grinex functioned as a bridge. Russian entities deposited rubles, converted them to A7A5, and immediately swapped into USDT (Tether) to access global markets. This “hopping” mechanism allowed capital to exit the ruble ecosystem without touching the regulated banking sector.
Market Reaction
The regulatory hammer fell swiftly. Uniswap blocked the token from its interface, forcing users to interact directly with the smart contract, a friction point that chills retail participation. Centralized exchanges followed suit, freezing accounts linked to A7A5 deposits. The result is a fractured liquidity landscape where the token still trades, but only within a shrinking circle of non-compliant venues.
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While the $500 million daily volume persists, the trend is clear. The cost of evasion is rising. Market makers on Grinex now face the choice of abandoning the pair or risking total asset seizure by Tether, which has previously frozen wallets at the request of the US Secret Service.
