A Russian ruble stablecoin named A7A5 has facilitated over $6 billion in cross-border transactions since August 2025, according to a recent Financial Times report. This activity persists despite the stablecoin’s key operators and linked exchanges being under Western sanctions.
Russian ruble stablecoin and the “DestroyBlackFunds” Mechanism
The Russian ruble stablecoin A7A5 has alleged close ties to several sanctioned entities, including the crypto exchanges Grinex and Garantex, as well as Russia’s state-backed Promsvyazbank.
Following U.S. sanctions on Grinex in August, blockchain data shows that over 80% of the A7A5 supply was destroyed using a “destroyBlackFunds” smart contract function. Subsequently, the same value was re-minted in new wallets, effectively erasing the transactional history.
Legitimization and Ongoing Scrutiny
Despite these actions, the Russian ruble stablecoin continues to see massive use, moving $6.1 billion through the new wallets. Furthermore, Russian authorities have granted A7A5 formal digital financial asset status, legitimizing its use for official trade settlements.
However, this has not shielded it from international scrutiny. Consequently, the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore removed all references to A7A5 and its executive from its agenda after media inquiries about the sanctions.
A Pattern of Evasion
The report suggests that the operators of this Russian ruble stablecoin learned from the takedown of Garantex. By destroying and reissuing tokens, they severed the on-chain link to sanctioned addresses, making fund movement much harder to trace and enforce against.
