A7A5 Stablecoin Issuer Oleg Ogienko Claims Billions Processed as Analysts Dispute Activity

A sanctioned ruble-backed stablecoin, A7A5, is at the center of a dispute over how widely it is actually used, with its issuer claiming high activity while blockchain analytics firms dispute that framing.

“This sanctioned Russian stablecoin claims it processes billions, but blockchain analysts disagree A7A5 claims crypto data providers understate its trading activity, while blockchain analytics firms say the ruble-backed token's volumes have fallen sharply this year”

@coindesk

A7A5’s director for regulatory affairs, Oleg Ogienko, said the token averages about $205 million in daily trading volume and has processed $34.4 billion between Jan. 1 and June 17 this year, adding that most of the token’s activity takes place in decentralized finance (DeFi).

@coindesk

TRM Labs analyst Chris Keegan said the firm’s analysis places A7A5’s average daily volume closer to $75 million and that about 34% of observed transaction volume appears to consist of circular fund movements that artificially inflate activity.

Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said monthly transaction volumes have fallen by more than 90% since January and are down 96% from their peak last year, following sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and the United Kingdom and the collapse of Grinex earlier this year.

Ogienko denied the claims, telling CoinDesk in a statement via Telegram that “These outdated principles and metrics do not provide users around the world with objective information about A7A5.”

The dispute is playing out against a backdrop of sanctions and the role of Russia-linked trading venues, with CoinDesk reporting that transaction volumes routinely collapse on weekends because much of the activity appears tied to business-to-business transfers involving the Russia-linked exchange Grinex.

CoinDesk also reported that A7A5 was rolled out in Kyrgyzstan in early 2025 and that the Russian-backed stablecoin was allegedly developed specifically as a means for Russia to evade Western sanctions.

BFM

In a separate account, CertiK said the Russian stablecoin A7A5 has processed more than €95 billion in transactions and that the number of wallets using A7A5 rose from 13,000 to 29,000 in one year.

That same report said each day, about €9.6 billion of A7A5 are exchanged on Grinex for rubles and a further €5.25 billion are exchanged for dollar-indexed stablecoins.

CertiK also described A7A5 as “one of the most notable examples of infrastructure designed to evade international sanctions,” while the article said sanctions mainly target exchange platforms and service providers that facilitate the use of cryptocurrency.

Beyond the measurement fight over A7A5’s activity, the sources describe policy pressure aimed at closing Russia-linked crypto routes, including a European Union effort to fully block Russia’s cryptocurrency channels.

“There is a growing dispute brewing between a sanctioned ruble-backed stablecoin issuer and blockchain analytics firms over the actual usage of the Russian-backed stablecoin”

CoinDesk

The Financial Times reported that the EU, in its twentieth sanctions package, is seeking a ban on all cryptocurrency transactions with Russia, and the article said an internal document cited by the Financial Times warned that any further listing of digital-asset service providers would likely lead to the creation of new companies to evade these lists.

The same report said the EU package may also target the A7 payment platform and its ruble-backed stablecoin, A7A5, while A7A5’s platform denied facilitating evasion of sanctions and described the accusations as political and lacking sufficient evidence.

A separate EU-focused report said the EU is considering imposing sanctions on the A7A5 stablecoin, described as the largest non-dollar stablecoin, and that it launched in February 2024 in collaboration with Russia’s state-owned Promsvyazbank on the Ethereum and Tron networks.

That report said the token’s market capitalization is currently about $500 million, accounting for 43% of the total non-dollar stablecoin market, and it described the EU’s sanctions adoption process as requiring approval from all 27 EU member states.