A Ruble-backed stablecoin tied to a Russian defense bank and a sanctioned payments firm has seen its usage spike sharply, with over $40 billion moved through the system to date, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
The stablecoin, called A7A5, was launched in January by Promsvyazbank and the Kyrgyz-based payments platform A7. Both firms are under Western sanctions. A7A5 is pitched as a tool for helping Russian businesses settle cross-border trades, especially with countries like China, without using traditional channels such as SWIFT.
According to Elliptic, daily transfers through A7A5 now exceed $1 billion, and the coin’s market cap has more than tripled to $521 million in less than two weeks. The report says July saw a noticeable spike in volume, liquidity, and circulating tokens.
TRM Labs, another blockchain research firm, said A7A5 appears to be part of a growing network of Kyrgyzstan-registered entities helping Russian firms route payments, tied to the movement of dual-use goods from China into Russia via Central Asia.
While Elliptic couldn’t verify the source of funds behind the transactions, the surge in A7A5 usage suggests growing demand for alternatives to mainstream financial systems, which remain largely closed off to Russian banks due to sanctions imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier this year, Elliptic provided intelligence to U.S. authorities in the investigation that took down Garantex, a Russia-linked crypto exchange accused of facilitating illicit transactions.
Garantex was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in April 2022 for facilitating money laundering connected to ransomware attacks and darknet markets. At the time, it was the third-largest crypto exchange sanctioned by the Treasury. Despite the sanctions, analytics firm Elliptic noted that Garantex transacted $60 billion after the designation.
U.S. authorities also indicted the exchange’s key operators, Aleksej Besciokov and Aleksandr Mira Serda. Besciokov was apprehended in India and faces extradition to the U.S., while Serda remains at large.
The move was part of a broader clampdown on entities believed to be assisting Russian nationals in evading international sanctions through the use of cryptocurrencies. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced penalties against 13 organizations and two individuals for such activities.
On Monday, A7A5 said it added $100 million in new liquidity to its decentralized exchange through Tether (USDT), citing high demand and limited supply. “Liquidity is gone in minutes,” it said on Telegram.
Promsvyazbank said at the time of launch that the platform would allow Russian businesses to pay for services and imports — particularly from China — while avoiding SWIFT.
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