Crypto: A7A5 reaches $179 billion
The figure is striking, but it needs to be read correctly. $179.1 billion represents cumulative transaction volume, not $179 billion held in A7A5. The same token can move between different addresses several times and be counted with each transfer.
The case did not emerge out of nowhere. BrefCrypto had already tracked the tightening restrictions when A7 Nigeria and A7 Africa entered the scope of sanctions affecting several crypto services.
A7A5 operates on Tron and Ethereum. The token is issued by Old Vector LLC, a company also sanctioned by the United States. FinCEN describes its use as a form of parallel accounting: A7A5 can circulate within the network to represent a payment while an intermediary company settles the corresponding amount abroad in dollars, euros, yuan or dirhams.
The stablecoin is therefore not simply being presented as a digital substitute for the ruble intended for trading.
It becomes one component of a cross-border settlement system.
A7 combines a stablecoin, banks and shell companies
A7 Network relies on companies known as “sub-agents,” based in different jurisdictions. According to FinCEN, they can receive and transmit international payments while using commercial documents, invoices or import-export descriptions to make certain transactions appear to be ordinary trade.
Between January 2025 and June 2026, these intermediaries allegedly processed more than $17 billion through the traditional financial system. Again, this figure should not be mechanically added to the $179.1 billion in A7A5: the two figures describe different layers of the same network.
This infrastructure contrasts with the other side of Russia’s crypto policy. Since September, Russia has also had a regulated market that conditionally allows access to Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
A7, for its part, says it exceeded 2,000 daily transactions and 7,500 billion rubles in volume in January, or approximately $91.5 billion. The Treasury cites this statement while specifying that it came from A7 itself.
Three figures, then. Three different metrics.
Washington seeks to cut financial channels
OFAC has now designated A7 Network as a significant transnational criminal organization. The network’s assets under U.S. jurisdiction must be blocked, and U.S. persons generally may no longer conduct transactions involving its property or interests without authorization.
FinCEN is also proposing to prevent U.S. financial institutions from transmitting funds linked to A7’s sub-agents. At this stage, the measure remains a regulatory proposal, with a public-comment period scheduled after its publication in the Federal Register.
The crypto layer is evolving as well. FinCEN says that after the alleged April 2026 hack of Grinex, a significant share of A7A5 was consolidated into unhosted wallets. Until then, most of the identified transactions had passed notably through Garantex and Grinex, two already-sanctioned entities.
For exchanges, the broader sanctions create additional compliance challenges. BrefCrypto had already shown how 12,000 microtransactions linked to sanctioned addresses triggered temporary restrictions at Kraken.
A7A5 takes this logic much further. The stablecoin is not used in isolation: it sits between wallets, intermediary companies and traditional banks.
That is probably the most important takeaway from the $179.1 billion figure. The parallel financial system targeted by Washington no longer truly pits crypto against the banking system. It uses both.
