Russian, Ruble-Linked A7A5 Stablecoin Services Billions Of Dollars Worth Of Trade .

A new cryptocurrency token designed to allow cross-border payments to avoid western financial sanctions on Russia has moved some US$9.3billion on a dedicated crypto exchange in just four months since it was launched.

Described as the first stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble, the A7A5 token was officially launched in Kyrgyzstan in February and aims to facilitate large-scale financial flows into and out of Russia, which have been severely complicated by western restrictions.

Crypto wallets linked to Grinex, a crypto exchange also founded in Kyrgyzstan and trading only in A7A5, rubles, and a dollar-pegged stablecoin, shows a total of US$9.3 billion worth of A7A5 being moved to and from wallets linked to it.

The stablecoin says it is backed by ruble deposits in Moscow’s Promsvyazbank, a small, state owned yet Western sanctioned bank. The coin’s growth is impressive: it now has 12 billion tokens in circulation, equivalent to US$156 million, however is used intensively by a relatively small group of users, whose daily transfers routinely amount to several times that volume.

The development of A7A5 and Grinex has emerged from the wreckage of an earlier US sanctioned move, in which Garantex, then Russia’s largest crypto exchange, was taken down by US law enforcement in March this year. Tether co-operated and froze US$23 million worth of USDT held in Garantex wallets. Garantex described Tether’s move as a declaration of “war against the Russian crypto market”. It rushed to invite customers to come for face-to-face meetings in its Moscow office to discuss recovering frozen assets.

Garantex was a major conduit for cash. The exchange had handled over US$60 billion worth of transactions since April 2022 and was used by Russian elites and import-export businesses. In the weeks preceding the crackdown, however, a large amount of funds held in USDT on Garantex were moved into A7A5. Some US$29 million worth of A7A5 tokens were then shifted onto the new Grinex exchange.

Source: Russiaspivottoasia