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Sujha Sundararajan
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Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic’s report shows that Russia’s ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5, launched last year to help evade sanctions, has processed over $100 billion in transactions in less than a year.
Russia-based cross-border payments firm A7 LLC launched the stablecoin in January 2025 to circumvent Western sanctions. It claims a 1:1 backing by ruble deposits held at Russian state-owned Promsvyazbank (PSB).
Per the report released on Thursday, the stablecoin issued on Ethereum and TRON blockchains processed nearly 250,000 on-chain transactions from 41,300 distinct accounts.
“Transaction numbers increased significantly in late September 2025, due to the introduction of the ability to purchase A7A5 with PSB bank cards,” Elliptic noted.
In June 2025, Cryptonews reported that A7A5 crossed over $9.3 billion in transactions on crypto exchange Grinex.
The stablecoin helps facilitate sanction evasion by functioning as a 1:1 ruble-backed “safe harbour,” even though Tether’s USDT became the primary crypto asset for Russian sanctions evasion.
A7A5 Stablecoin Hits $100B Transactions – Here’s How
The asset, which is currently listed only on Uniswap, has a market cap of more than $540 million, per CoinMarketCap data.
Further, the Elliptic data shows that 35,500 accounts now hold the stablecoin, an increase from the 14,000 in July 2025.
“Total A7A5 exchange volumes have now reached $17.3 billion,” Elliptic added. “The primary trading pairs, A7A5/rubles ($11.2 billion) and A7A5/USDT ($6.1 billion), highlight the stablecoin’s primary role as a bridging asset between rubles and USDT.”
Stablecoin Supply Stalled Amid Heavy Western Sanctions
Besides, the stablecoin activity is currently showing signs of stalling after heavy sanctions by the US, UK and EU on Russia-linked cryptos. The Western sanctions were imposed on Russia, targeting finance, energy and goods, since the nation’s full-scale Ukraine invasion.
“Despite relatively high transaction volumes, there are indications that demand for A7A5 has stalled,” Elliptic report noted. “There are just over 42.5 billion A7A5 in circulation, with a US dollar value of $547 million.”
Additionally, the transaction volumes have dropped from a peak of over $1.5 billion per day to around $500 million per day.
