Elliptic: Five crypto trading platforms assist Russia in evading sanctions, filling the gap left by Garantex's closure
BlockBeats News, February 22 — Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that after the sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex was seized by U.S. authorities in March 2025, at least five cryptocurrency trading platforms related to Russia continued to provide funding channels for sanctioned entities, most of which have not yet been sanctioned.
The report mentioned that only peer-to-peer platform Bitpapa was listed on the U.S. Treasury Department’s OFAC sanctions list in March 2024. Elliptic stated that approximately 9.7% of its outbound funds flowed to sanctioned entities, with frequent wallet address changes to evade monitoring.
Unsanctioned ABCeX is said to operate out of the Moscow Federal Building (also the former site of Garantex), handling at least $11 billion in crypto transactions, and has significant fund flows with Garantex and Aifory Pro. Another platform, Exmo, claimed to have exited the Russian market after the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict, but on-chain data shows it still shares custodial wallet infrastructure with the Russian platform Exmo.me and has conducted over $19.5 million in direct transactions with sanctioned entities such as Garantex, Grinex, and Chatex.
Additionally, Rapira is reported to have directly transacted over $72 million with sanctioned platform Grinex; Aifory Pro offers cash-to-crypto exchange services in Moscow, Dubai, and Turkey, and helps users bypass Western service restrictions through USDT virtual cards.
Elliptic pointed out that after Garantex was shut down, related sanctions evasion activities did not disappear but dispersed across more platforms. Chainalysis previously reported that in 2025, crypto addresses involved in illegal activities received a total of $154 billion, with the Russian ruble-backed A7A5 stablecoin trading exceeding $93.3 billion; TRM Labs estimated the total illegal crypto transaction volume for the year at approximately $158 billion.
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