The United States Imposes Blacklist Sanctions on the Ruble Stablecoin A7A5 and the Cryptocurrency Network Owned by Garantex

BlockBeats News, August 15th, according to CoinDesk reports, the United States has imposed blacklist sanctions on the Ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 and the closed Russian crypto exchange platform Garantex's crypto network. Garantex was previously shut down after processing over $100 million in illicit transactions, and then rebranded as Grinex to continue operations. The stablecoin A7A5, backed by a Russian institution, was used to evade international sanctions, with a daily trading volume of $1 billion.

The United States, in collaboration with German and Finnish authorities, seized Garantex's website domain in March and froze $26 million in assets. Garantex's key executives Sergey Mendeleev, Aleksandr Mira Serda, and Pavel Karavatsky, as well as Mendeleev's companies InDeFi Bank and Exved, were also blacklisted for facilitating sanctioned Russian entities in conducting transactions through crypto channels. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that the Ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 supported an "evasion of sanctions scheme," enabling Russian companies to bypass the traditional banking system for cross-border payment settlements.