The A7A5 ruble stablecoin has processed close to $140 billion in turnover since its launch in early 2025, according to Pyotr Fradkov, chief executive of Russia’s Promsvyazbank (PSB). That headline figure, however, sits alongside a blockchain record that raises questions about how much of that volume reflects genuine commerce.
A Stablecoin Built on Sanctioned Foundations
A7A5 was created by Moscow-based A7 LLC, a company 51%-owned by Ilan Shor and 49%-owned by Promsvyazbank, according to written evidence submitted to a UK parliamentary committee. Shor, a Moldovan citizen convicted in Moldova and sanctioned by the UK under the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulation 2021, as well as by the EU and the US, is described as CEO and co-owner of the A7 platform.
The token is backed by ruble deposits at Promsvyazbank and issued through Old Vector LLC, a Kyrgyzstan-registered company that has itself been sanctioned by the UK for supporting the Russian government and its financial sector. The snippet states the launch occurred in February 2025; parliamentary written evidence places it in January 2025. The two sources conflict on that specific date.
Fradkov describes A7A5 as ‘the largest non-dollar stablecoin’ and frames it as a core part of PSB’s A7 settlement infrastructure, structured around a network of settlement centres and partner institutions. Around 90% of flows are reportedly linked to China, with roughly 15,000 regular customers and around 2,000 payments processed per day.
‘The system is designed in such a way that, even after falling under sanctions… the company continues to carry out payments,’ Fradkov said. Uniswap has removed A7A5 from its interface following sanctions designations.
A7A5 Ruble Stablecoin: What the On-Chain Data Shows
The volume figure looks different when placed alongside the blockchain record. A single wallet, created on 4 May 2026, just 18 days after the shutdown of Grinex (previously A7A5’s main trading venue), now holds 94.5% of A7A5’s Tron-based supply, worth around $468 million of the roughly $475 million issued across Tron and Ethereum combined. The top four addresses together hold 99.2% of that Tron-based supply, according to a Crystal Intelligence report published 30 July 2026. That wallet received its balance almost entirely from a single distributor counterparty.
Daily transfer volumes collapsed by 97% from their March 2026 high, dropping from $65 million to below $8 million by July 2026, after restrictions affected parts of the network. Crystal Intelligence also reported that much of the remaining public activity in the A7A5/USDT pair appears to involve wash trading (where a party buys and sells to itself, inflating apparent volume), with a single address at times accounting for close to half of daily volume.
The TRM Labs 2026 Crypto Crime Report puts the wash-trading estimate at approximately 34% of A7A5’s trading volume, describing rapid circular transfers consistent with automated behaviour designed to inflate apparent liquidity. TRM assesses A7A5 as an internal settlement mechanism within a sanctions evasion network linking A7, Garantex, and Kyrgyzstan-based entities, rather than a globally competitive stablecoin.
The Illicit-Flow Picture Is Larger Than A7A5 Alone
TRM Labs’ ‘Big Shor’ investigation linked more than $72 billion of A7A5 transaction volume to activity it classified as illicit. Separately, TRM identified an additional $39 billion sent to the broader A7 wallet cluster, which it treats as a distinct measure from the token volume figures. TRM notes the two figures are not directly additive.
To put those numbers in context: the TRM Labs stablecoins analysis found that illicit entities received $141 billion via stablecoin wallets in total in 2025, with the $72 billion linked to A7A5 representing the highest level of illicit stablecoin flows observed in five years. Stablecoins accounted for 86% of all illicit crypto flows in 2025, or 42% when A7A5 volumes are excluded.
Overall illicit crypto flows reached a record $158 billion in 2025, reversing a multi-year decline, according to the TRM Labs 2026 Crime Report key insights. Illicit entities captured 2.7% of available crypto liquidity in 2025, measured against deployable capital rather than raw volume.
For UK investors with exposure to regulated crypto platforms or blockchain-linked equities, the A7A5 picture is a reminder that headline volume figures in unlicensed, sanctions-exposed stablecoin markets can diverge sharply from genuine economic activity. The token’s next pressure point comes from ongoing tracking by TRM Labs and a Russian regulatory deadline requiring crypto firms to obtain licences by July 2027.
