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Russian ruble stablecoin A7A5 surges despite sanctions
A ruble-pegged stablecoin tied to sanctioned entities posted remarkable growth in 2025, adding roughly $89.5 billion to its circulating supply and outpacing major dollar-backed stablecoins even as Western sanctions intensified.
Known as A7A5, the cryptocurrency launched in early January 2025 by a firm linked to Promsvyazbank a sanctioned Russian public bank and Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, convicted in a $1 billion banking fraud case. Its expansion eclipsed Tether's USDT, which grew by about $49 billion, and Circle's USDC, up around $31 billion over the same stretch.
A7A5 operates on Tron and Ethereum blockchains to enable cross-border transactions for Russian users facing banking restrictions. CoinGecko data indicates it lists on no centralized exchanges, trading solely via decentralized platforms like Uniswap, evading traditional financial oversight.
By July 2025, the stablecoin handled over $1 billion in daily transfers, with total transaction volume reaching $41.2 billion by then, per blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. Its market cap tripled in under two weeks to $521 million by late July.
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Promsvyazbank on February 22, 2022, for its role in Russia's defense sector and funding the country's military-industrial complex. Russia nationalized PSB in 2018, redirecting it to support defense firms with billions in aid.
In August 2025, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted Old Vector, the Kyrgyzstan-based issuer of A7A5, along with A7 LLC and affiliates, barring them from the dollar-based financial system. The UK sanctioned A7 LLC in May 2025, followed by EU measures in July. The EU's latest sanctions package, effective January 25, 2026, explicitly bans A7A5 use and hits Russian payment infrastructures, including stablecoins.
Shor, sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in 2017 for Moldova's largest banking fraud, fled house arrest in 2019. U.S. authorities sanctioned him in October 2022, and Moldovan officials accuse him of orchestrating vote-buying schemes and political interference on Russia's behalf.
