A new cryptocurrency token designed to allow cross-border payments despite Western sanctions against Russia, launched by a fugitive Moldovan oligarch and a Russian defense sector, has moved some $ 9.3 billion on an crypto exchange dedicated in just four months since its launch, has found the FT.
Presented as the first stablecoin fixed to the Russian ruble, the A7A5 token was officially launched in Kyrgyzstan in February and aims to facilitate large -scale financial flows in and outside Russia, which were seriously complicated by Western restrictions.
An FT analysis of the portfolios linked to Grinene, an exchange of crypto, also very recently founded in Kyrgyzstan and negotiating only in A7A5, from rubles and a stablecoin to Pius to a dollar, shows a total of $ 9.3 billion with an A7A5 value to and from portfolios linked to this exchange.
The Stablecoin indicates that it is supported by ruble deposits in the Promsvyazbank of Moscow, a bank in the defense sector subject to American sanctions, the United Kingdom and the EU on the large-scale invasion by Vladimir Putin of Ukraine. The rapid growth of the room is clear: it now has chips of 12 billion traffic, equivalent to $ 156 million, and is used intensively by a relatively small group of users, whose daily transfers are regularly raising this volume several times.
But the A7A5 token also seems to be linked to Moscow’s attempts to use cryptocurrencies to finance political influence campaigns abroad, according to a new report By the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a non -profit research group based in London.
A7, the company initially behind the token, now subject to British sanctions, belongs to the majority by the Moldavian businessman Ilan șor, according to the files of Russian companies. Șou fled from the residual resistance in Moldova in 2019 after being found guilty of having stolen $ 1 billion in the greatest banking fraud in the history of the country.
Or moved to Moscow and became a Russian citizen. Last year, he was accused by Moldovan police of directing a vast operation to buy votes during the Moldovan elections, accusations which he described as an “absurd spectacle”.
In his new report, CIR has found several areas used in political influence operations in Moldova has shared an IP address with A7 and A7A5 sites. Or did not respond to a comment request. In a statement, A7A5 said that if he had “cooperated with the A7 technical team at an early stage”, he “decided to separate completely due to different visions of the development strategy” last month.
The creation of the stablecoin comes in the middle of an increased examination of the transactions linked to Russia for compliance with the sanctions and the exclusion of certain Russian banks of the International Messaging Network.
“Russian companies and government representatives have been talking about how they could use cryptocurrency to escape the sanctions on a large scale, in particular by creating their own stablecoin,” said Elise Thomas, principal investigator at CIR.
Kyrgyzstan was chosen because it is “a friendly competence that is not so subject to sanctions,” said the director of the A7A5, Leonid Shumakov. “It is not a secret for anyone that this jurisdiction currently helps a lot to face pressure (Russia).”
Russian users can buy A7A5 tokens on the Tron or Ethereum blockchains, then use them to buy USDT from Tether, a stablecoin fixed by an American dollar. From there, the user can remove the value in the country or the currency he needs.
Shumakov said that the A7A5’s objective was to give “people the opportunity to use it as a bridge for a safe transition” to the USDT, adding that many current A7A5 holders were likely to be Russian importers.
According to the company, a ruble is deposited in Promsvyazbank for all regulars to buy A7A5 – protecting the customer in Russia against the volatility of traditional cryptocurrencies. The company declares that the existence of these FIAT reserves is verified by an independent Kyrgyzé auditor.
A7A5 and Grinex seem to have emerged and developed as a result of the collapse of another large Russian shadow payment system.
Guarantx, the greatest exchange of Crypto in Russia, was suppressed by the American police in March. Tether cooperated and frozen $ 23 million from USDT held in GuaRotex wallets.
Guarantx described Tether’s decision as a declaration of “war against the Russian cryptography market”. He rushed to invite customers to come for face -to -face meetings in his Moscow office in order to discuss frozen recovery assets.
For Russian officials, Tether’s decision underlined the need to create a local stable. “Recent developments … We lead us to think that we must consider the creation of national instruments like the USDT,” said Osman Kabaloev, a deputy from the Russian Ministry of Finance.
Thomas de Cir said that “if you have a stablecoin controlled by an entity based in the West
Guarantx was a major cash duct. The exchange has managed more than $ 60 billion in transactions since April 2022 and was used by the Russian elites as well as in the global criminal money laundering regimes, according to Elliptic, a blockchain analysis company whose data was used by American police in the operation.
During the weeks preceding the repression, however, a large amount of funds held in the USDT on Guarantx was transferred to A7A5, according to the Swiss Blockchain Global Ledger research company. The two were already close: images shared on the social networks of the Guarantex office show an A7A5 logo on one of the stands.
Some 29 million dollars of A7A5 tokens were then moved to Grinene, an exchange newly founded in Kirgyzstan.
According to analysts, Grinex seems likely to be an heir to the platform removed by American action. In his survey, CIR noted that Grinene and the A7A5 transmitter were both recorded in Kyrgyzstan the same week.
“Garantors users with exceptional sales at the time of closure could have been credited with these balances on new accounts set up on Grinex,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist and founder of Elliptic. “It is therefore clear that Grinex is a direct successor of Garantinex, and very likely to be exploited and controlled by the same parts.”
Grinex told the FT that this is an independent platform, unrelated to Garantex. “All allegations of” continuity “or” brand change “are speculative and not supported by the facts,” he said.
“Grinex capitalized on market opportunities after the Garantex closure as part of its growth strategy,” said a representative. “Grinex obtained part of the non -toxic customers in the Blocked Guarantex exchange, only engaging in users with a transparent history.”
The company also declared that Grinene and A7A5 were independent entities and that the “coincidence of registration dates and peaks of activity does not indicate any affiliation” between them.
The list of stablecoin to the exchange was due to the interest of users, he said. “In the middle of increasingly frequent blockages by Tether, Russian -speaking customers need a reliable alternative to the USDT.”
Grinex, he added, complies with “international sanctions regimes and does not lead to transactions with jurisdictions or individuals subject to restrictions”. He also challenged the FT calculations.
An FT analysis of Open Source Blockchain data found that 124 portfolios transferred a combined value of $ 9.3 billion from A7A5 to and from portfolios related to Grinene. The true value of the transactions represented by these token movements is not clear: a large part of the flows follows rigid fixed models which suggest that they can be used within the framework of an internal banking process.
“It seems very likely that A7A5 exists for use by a relatively low number of services and actors at present,” said an elliptical note.
It is not possible to confirm whether these actors are linked to Russia. However, an FT analysis of transactions shows that they occur almost entirely during the week, often during the Moscow office hours.
In a statement to the FT, A7A5 said it had been “created in response to the growing interest of the cryptographic community for the stablecoins lengled in currencies other than the US dollar”.
“We consider it a real market opportunity,” he said.
Asked about the links with Guarantx and the new Kirghizéré exchange, the issuer said: “The token was distributed through approved brokers listed on the official website. Lists on individual trading soils took place in their own initiative or on the brokers’ initiative.”
A7 was added to the UK sanctions list in May. Speaking at a forum last week, șor said that 7 created a new larger, differentiated and “sufficiently invulnerable” payment system. This would imply to exchange titles and instruments “not politicized” such as precious metals in order to avoid regulators. The crypto would only be a track, he said.
CIR has found employment advertisements by A7 for Chinese speakers, energy experts and accountants in the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan and Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia.
Last year, șor was involved in discussions with Keremet Bank in Kyrgyzstan, according to the US foreign asset control, as plans “to create a sanctions escape center so that Russia can pay imports and receive payment of exports”. OFAC sanctioned the bank in January.
A7A5 did not answer any questions from the FT on Keremet Bank, or on șor and its activities in Moldova.
