A7A5, a ruble-pegged stablecoin connected to sanctioned Russian entities, added about $90 billion in circulating supply last year, more than Tether’s USDT at $49 billion and Circle’s USDC at $31 billion. According to a report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, A7A5 has processed more than $100 billion in cumulative transaction volume, even though it launched only in January 2025.
Executive says the project follows Kyrgyz rules
Speaking to CoinDesk at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong, A7A5’s director of regulatory and overseas affairs, Oleg Ogienko, said the company is fully compliant with Kyrgyz regulations and does not engage in illegal activity. He also said A7A5 has implemented KYC and AML procedures and follows the principles set by the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF.
Ogienko said the company is aiming to handle more than 20% of Russia’s trade settlements. That goal points to the token’s intended use in cross-border payments rather than retail trading.
Sanctioned issuers and reserve bank draw scrutiny
The project remains under heavy scrutiny. A7A5’s issuing entities, Old Vector LLC and A7 LLC, as well as its reserve bank Promsvyazbank, or PSB, are all under U.S. Treasury sanctions. Those restrictions block normal interaction with the dollar-based global financial system and have intensified concerns that the stablecoin could be used to bypass sanctions.
The backdrop is clear. Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, Western countries removed Russia from the SWIFT system, sharply limiting traditional cross-border payment channels. Stablecoins have since become one of the tools used in alternative trade settlement routes, and A7A5’s rise sits squarely in that setting.
On-chain liquidity looks small, off-chain usage appears much larger
A7A5 is mainly serving businesses in Asia, Africa, and South America that trade with Russian partners. Its DeFi liquidity pool reportedly has only about $50,000 in available USDT. That is a small figure. Still, the report says over-the-counter and institutional flows are far larger than what public on-chain data shows.
Ogienko said A7A5 is already deployed on Tron and Ethereum and is in talks with blockchain platforms and exchanges as it looks to expand onto more networks.
Overseas growth continues while Russia lacks local rules
One striking detail is that A7A5 cannot currently operate inside Russia itself, because domestic stablecoin regulation has not yet been introduced there. For now, a token built around Russian trade demand is limited to overseas markets.
DL News also reported that A7A5’s rapid growth helped drive a roughly 400% surge in crypto activity linked to sanctions evasion. At the same time, the U.S. GENIUS Act is moving ahead and stablecoin oversight is tightening in multiple jurisdictions, putting projects like A7A5 under growing regulatory pressure.