The European Union has added HTX, the crypto exchange owned and advised by Tron founder Justin Sun, to its latest round of Russia sanctions.
HTX appears in the bloc’s 21st sanctions package, adopted Thursday, under its operator, Huobi Global SA. The EU described the package as its largest batch of individual listings in four years, covering 218 entries. In an annex naming crypto and financial firms, the bloc accused the listed entities of having “significantly frustrated” its Russia measures.
EU transaction ban starts on August 23
From August 23, people and entities in the EU will be barred from transacting with the exchange. The measure does not freeze HTX assets and does not amount to a full designation. HTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a July 23, 2026 post that she welcomed the agreement on the 21st sanctions package against Russia. She said the sanctions continued to weaken the economic foundations of Russia’s war effort and added that the EU was placing 32 more Russian banks on its transaction ban list.
Crypto restrictions widen beyond a single exchange
The package sharply expands the EU’s crypto-related measures. It extends the bloc’s transaction ban to 14 crypto service platforms based in Georgia, Panama, the UAE, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus. The EU also added four listings tied to the “A7” cross-border network, citing new links to Africa.
For the first time, the bloc also raised the possibility of imposing a full ban on a third country’s crypto services. The EU framed that as a deterrent aimed at jurisdictions hosting platforms that help Moscow evade restrictions. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement, “We’re hitting over a hundred banks and crypto operators,” and added, “With each round of sanctions, we squeeze Russia’s economy and its capacity to prolong its illegal war.”
UK moved first in May
HTX, formerly Huobi, was founded in China in 2013 and ranks among the world’s largest exchanges. The platform reported more than $3 trillion in trading volume in 2025.
The UK sanctioned HTX in May, marking the first time Britain applied that measure to an exchange of that size. British authorities flagged the exchange as suspected of channeling more than $1.5 billion to the Kremlin and accused it of servicing A7. Experts cited in the report said Moscow uses A7A5, A7’s ruble-pegged stablecoin, to move money.
TRM Labs says HTX rebuilt wallet infrastructure
The EU listing comes two days after blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said HTX had “rebuilt its on-chain plumbing” since the UK action. According to TRM, the exchange rotated hot wallets across TRON, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Solana quickly enough that address screening “cannot keep pace.” At the time, TRM noted that neither Washington nor Brussels had designated the exchange. The EU has now partly closed that gap.
HTX has pushed back on the allegations. It told Decrypt that the wallet activity reflected “routine, security-driven platform operations.” After the UK action, HTX said Huobi Global S.A. was “distinct from the online HTX exchange,” and that user funds were safe and operations were unaffected. The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, however, said Huobi’s ownership of HTX makes the exchange subject to the UK sanctions regime.
U.S. action has not followed
Sun settled his U.S. fraud case with the Securities and Exchange Commission this year for $10 million. He had also been a prominent backer of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial before that relationship turned into dueling lawsuits.
For now, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has not taken action against HTX, leaving enforcement uneven across jurisdictions.