A7A5, a stablecoin tied to the Russian ruble, has reportedly facilitated transactions exceeding $9.3 billion on Grinex, a cryptocurrency exchange regarded as the successor to the recently sanctioned platform Garantex.
Key Insights:
- A7A5’s transactions amount to $9.3 billion, predominantly from only 124 wallets.
- Both Elliptic and Global Ledger have indicated that Grinex may be operating as an unofficial successor to Garantex.
- Experts are raising concerns about A7A5’s level of adoption due to its concentrated transactional flows and political affiliations.
The Financial Times has highlighted that the majority of these transactions can be traced back to a small number of wallets, prompting scrutiny regarding how the token is being utilized.
In March, Global Ledger claimed that the operators behind Garantex had transferred liquidity and customer assets to Grinex, dubbing it a “full-fledged successor” of the now-defunct exchange.
Elliptic Raises Concerns Over A7A5 Transfers
Analysts from the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic remarked that many of the observed transfers exhibited “rigid fixed patterns,” suggesting they are more indicative of internal fund transfers rather than genuine market adoption.
Though Grinex has distanced itself from Garantex, indications suggest that the new platform may have gained a portion of the previous exchange’s user base.
“Users of Garantex who had existing balances at the time of its closure could have those amounts transferred to new accounts created on Grinex,” stated Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic.
Earlier this year, Garantex was hit with sanctions from the U.S. Treasury and faced a $27 million USDT freeze imposed by Tether.
At present, A7A5 trades exclusively on Uniswap, carrying a market capitalization of $151 million and around 12 million tokens circulating.
Compliance alert: #Garantex founders launch a new platform
1/ Following Garantex’s shutdown and #Tether freezing its wallets, the founders have launched Grinex. Here’s what we’ve uncovered pic.twitter.com/m28einnisn
— Global Ledger Alerts (@GlobalLedger) March 19, 2025
A7A5 is traded against not only the Russian ruble but also major stablecoins like USDT and U.S. dollars, as confirmed by Grinex’s Telegram channel.
The organization behind A7A5 asserts that the token is fully backed on a one-to-one basis by ruble reserves held at Promsvyazbank, a Moscow-based financial institution currently under Western sanctions for its involvement in financing Russia’s military activities.
Despite its contentious emergence, A7A5 has garnered approximately 24,000 holders, according to figures from Etherscan and Tronscan.
Nonetheless, experts remain doubtful about its potential for widespread adoption, highlighting the concentrated transactional activity and unclear origins of a significant portion of its flows.
Adding another layer of complexity is A7A5’s alleged political connections. The Centre for Information Resilience has reported associations between the stablecoin and Ilan Shor, a Moldovan businessman and politically sanctioned figure with a history of fraud convictions.
Although A7A5 representatives claim to have severed ties with Shor’s related A7 project in May, he was observed endorsing the stablecoin at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.
Europol Shutdown of Archetyp Market
In June, Europol executed a significant operation that led to the dismantling of Archetyp Market, one of the longest-standing marketplaces operating on the dark web, following coordinated raids across six countries.
A similar enforcement action saw U.S. authorities seize cryptocurrency linked to BidenCash, another notorious dark web platform known for trafficking over 15 million stolen credit cards and personal data.
This international crackdown resulted in the takedown of approximately 145 internet domains associated with such activities.
Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Justice has recently confiscated over $24 million in cryptocurrency from a Russian national accused of developing and managing the Qakbot malware.
The post Ruble-Backed A7A5 Stablecoin Moves $9.3B on Sanctioned Russian Exchange Successor Grinex appeared first on Finance Newso.
