Russian Sanctions and Crypto Exchange Access Limitations: How Garantex, Grinex, and A7A5 Are Being Targeted

When Russia was cut off from SWIFT and Western banking systems after 2022, cryptocurrency became a lifeline. For businesses, individuals, and even state-linked actors, crypto offered a way to move money without banks. But that lifeline is now under direct attack. The U.S. government has turned its focus from traditional financial sanctions to dismantling the crypto infrastructure that helps Russia bypass them. And it’s working - but not without creating a new, more dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.

Garantex: The Exchange That Started It All

Garantex wasn’t just another crypto exchange. Founded in 2017 by Sergey Mendelev, Aleksandr Mira Serda, and Pavel Karavatsky, it became one of the largest Russian-language platforms for trading cryptocurrency. It didn’t just serve retail users - it handled massive volumes of transactions tied to ransomware, hacking, and sanctions evasion. By 2022, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) labeled Garantex a sanctioned entity under Executive Order 14024, accusing it of operating in Russia’s financial services sector.

But Garantex didn’t shut down. It adapted. It kept running, using complex wallet obfuscation techniques to hide the flow of funds. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic tracked over $100 million in illicit transactions through Garantex since 2019. That’s not speculation - it’s documented evidence. The U.S. Secret Service used that data to act. On March 6, 2025, they raided Garantex’s infrastructure: seized three domains, confiscated servers, and froze $26 million in USDT. Co-founder Aleksej Besciokov was arrested in India while on vacation. The exchange was crippled.

Grinex: The Successor That Was Doomed From Day One

Within days of Garantex’s takedown, a new platform appeared: Grinex. Its own website openly admitted it was created “in response to sanctions and asset freezes that affected Garantex.” That admission became its death sentence.

On August 14, 2025, OFAC designated Grinex under Executive Order 13694 - the same law used to target cybercriminal infrastructure. The agency didn’t just block Grinex. They also sanctioned three Garantex executives and six companies linked to the operation, including firms in Kyrgyzstan that helped manage the backend. Grinex wasn’t just a clone - it was a direct continuation. And OFAC knew it.

What made Grinex dangerous wasn’t just its name. It was the A7A5 token.

A7A5: The Ruble-Backed Crypto That Tried to Replace USDT

Before 2025, Russian users relied on USDT (Tether) because it was stable, widely accepted, and easy to trade. But USDT has a fatal flaw: it’s centralized. Tether can freeze wallets. When Garantex went offline, users lost access to their USDT holdings. That’s when A7A5 entered the scene.

A7A5 is a stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble, issued by a Kyrgyzstani firm. Unlike USDT, it was designed to be resistant to freezes. It ran on TRON and Ethereum, two blockchains with high transaction throughput. Russian users flocked to it. Elliptic estimated that wallets tied to the A7 network - including A7A5, A7 Agent, InDeFi Bank, and others - received over $8 billion in cryptocurrency since early 2024. That’s not a typo. Eight billion dollars. And that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg.

But here’s the catch: A7A5 wasn’t anonymous. It was designed to be hard to block - not hard to trace. Elliptic had been watching. By mid-2025, they had built tools to screen A7A5 transactions. On August 14, 2025 - the same day OFAC sanctioned Grinex - unusual activity spiked in A7A5 wallets. It wasn’t a hack. It was a panic. The operators were moving funds, changing keys, trying to outrun enforcement.

Why the U.S. Is Going All-In on Crypto Sanctions

This isn’t about punishing individuals. It’s about breaking a system. Russia’s economy is under siege. Traditional banking is blocked. The ruble is unstable. Crypto isn’t just a convenience - it’s a survival tool. And the U.S. sees that. That’s why the State Department offered up to $6 million in rewards for information leading to the arrest of Garantex’s leaders. $5 million for Aleksandr Mira Serda alone.

The strategy is clear: target the people, shut down the infrastructure, and kill the tools. When Garantex was hit, the response wasn’t just a freeze - it was a coordinated global takedown. When Grinex emerged, it was sanctioned within months, not years. When A7A5 gained traction, blockchain analysts added it to their screening tools within weeks.

This is no longer about blocking banks. It’s about blocking code. It’s about tracing wallets. It’s about knowing which digital addresses belong to who - and acting fast.

What This Means for Russian Crypto Users

If you’re in Russia and you’re trying to access crypto exchanges today, you’re in a minefield. Any platform that looks even remotely connected to Garantex or Grinex is now a target. Even if you’re not doing anything illegal, using a platform that’s been flagged can get your funds frozen - not because you broke the law, but because the platform did.

The A7A5 token was supposed to be the answer. Now, it’s a red flag. Exchanges outside Russia that once accepted it are quietly cutting it off. Wallet providers are adding warnings. Payment processors are blocking transfers to A7A5 addresses. The ecosystem is collapsing under its own weight.

And there’s no easy workaround. Decentralized exchanges? They’re still traceable. Peer-to-peer trading? It’s slower, riskier, and harder to scale. The days of seamless, anonymous crypto access for Russian users are over.

The Bigger Picture: A New Era of Digital Sanctions

What’s happening with Garantex, Grinex, and A7A5 isn’t an isolated case. It’s the blueprint for how sanctions will work in the next decade. The U.S. and its allies are no longer waiting for governments to act. They’re using blockchain analytics, international law enforcement, and financial intelligence to target private actors directly.

This isn’t just about Russia. It’s about Iran, North Korea, Venezuela - any country trying to use crypto to bypass sanctions. The playbook is the same: identify the exchange, track the money, freeze the assets, arrest the leaders, and sanction the successors.

The result? Crypto is becoming less of a tool for freedom and more of a tool for surveillance. The very features that made it attractive - decentralization, pseudonymity, cross-border access - are now being turned against it.

What Comes Next?

The next wave will likely involve new tokens, new platforms, and new jurisdictions. Maybe a stablecoin backed by gold. Maybe a peer-to-peer network built on Lightning Network. Maybe a decentralized exchange hosted on a satellite.

But here’s the truth: every time a new platform emerges, it leaves a trail. Wallet addresses. Transaction patterns. IP logs. Metadata. The tools to track them are getting smarter, faster, and cheaper. And the U.S. government has more data than ever.

For now, the message is clear: if you’re helping Russia evade sanctions through crypto, you’re not invisible. You’re not untouchable. You’re just a target waiting to be named.