Russia’s ruble-pegged stablecoin helped evade sanctions to the tune of $100 billion

While Tether’s $USDT has become a key asset for Russia to evade Western sanctions imposed after the Ukraine invasion in 2022, transactions with the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5 surpassed $100 billion.

Elliptic’s Jan. 22 report reveals that as A7A5 is issued on Ethereum and Tron, public blockchains, it was able to monitor that 250,000 transactions that took place among 41,300 wallet addresses in less than one year.

The data Elliptic shared shows 35,500 accounts now hold A7A5, an increase from the 14,000 in July 2025. “Total A7A5 exchange volumes have now reached $17.3 billion,” the report said. The primary trading pairs are, A7A5/rubles ($11.2 billion) and A7A5/$USDT ($6.1 billion), indicating stablecoins’ primary role as a bridging asset between rubles and $USDT.

Elliptic noted that currently A7A5 activity shows signs of stalling following U.S., U.K. and EU sanctions targeting Russian-linked crypto infrastructure. Since Russia’s full-scale Ukraine invasion, Western governments imposed sanctions targeting energy, finance and strategic goods. The EU froze roughly $250 billion of Russian assets and the U.K., nearly $35 billion.

“There are indications that demand for A7A5 has stalled. There are just over 42.5 billion A7A5 in circulation, with a US dollar value of $547 million. No major issuances of new A7A5 have taken place since late July 2025.”

Elliptic noted that transaction volumes have also dropped from a peak of over $1.5 billion per day last year to around $500 million per day this year. “This drop in activity can perhaps be attributed to the impact of US, UK and EU sanctions imposed on A7A5, which has manifested in a number of visible ways,” Elliptic said.

Tether did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for information whether any Western country has asked for Russian-linked $USDT accounts to be frozen. However, on Thursday, a spokesperson told CoinDesk they freeze $USDT accounts upon official legal request.

An Elliptic spokesperson told CoinDesk that “a number of (Russian) entities have been sanctioned by the US and EU for their role in facilitating sanctions evasion with cryptocurrencies including stablecoins.” The spokesperson said Elliptic collaborated with Tether and the U.S. Secret Service in March 2025 to freeze $USDT held by the sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex.

“However, when it comes to A7A5, only that asset's issuer has the ability to blacklist addresses.” While A7A5 remains a growing tool for Russian cross-border trade, it is increasingly becoming isolated from the broader crypto ecosystem, Elliptic concluded.