A7A5 Pushes Back on Analysts Over Real Stablecoin Volume
The ruble-pegged token is under fire over conflicting volume claims from A7A5, TRM Labs, and Elliptic. The dispute also touches DeFi, sanctions on Russia, and the use of Grinex.
Key Takeaways
- A7A5 says it processes about $205 million in trading volume per day, but analysts see much lower and declining volumes.
- TRM Labs and Elliptic report circular transactions, weekend drops, and a sharp decline in activity since January.
- The ruble-backed stablecoin is under sanctions pressure and raises questions about crypto workarounds for Western restrictions.
The Russian stablecoin A7A5 is facing fresh scrutiny as a dispute grows over how much it is actually being used to route around Western restrictions. The issuer says the token’s activity is far higher than outside analysts suggest, while blockchain firms argue that volumes have fallen sharply and that a large share of the activity looks artificial.
Conflicting Volume Claims
A7A5 says it averages about $205 million (€179 million) in daily trading volume and says it processed $34.4 billion (€30 billion) between January 1 and June 17 this year. Oleg Ogienko, A7A5’s director of regulatory affairs, said most of that activity takes place in DeFi, where users often do not need to verify their identity and transfers can move straight between crypto wallets instead of through a crypto exchange.
TRM Labs tells a much different story. Analyst Chris Keegan says the firm’s data puts average daily volume closer to $75 million (€65.5 million), and that activity has been trending lower over the past few months. He also said roughly 34 percent of the transactions they tracked appear to be circular flows that make volume look bigger than it really is.
Keegan added that volumes tend to fall off on weekends, which he believes is because much of the activity is tied to business-to-business transfers through the Russia-linked exchange Grinex. Elliptic is seeing the same slowdown. According to co-founder Tom Robinson, monthly transactions have dropped more than 90 percent since January and are now 96 percent below last year’s peak.
Sanctions and the Russian Context
A7A5 is a ruble-backed stablecoin backed by deposits at Promsvyazbank, a Russian bank already under Western sanctions. The token launched in Kyrgyzstan in early 2025 and, according to its main description, was designed to help Russian payments move outside Western financial channels. Last year, the EU, the UK, and the US also placed A7A5 on their sanctions lists.
That pressure fits into a broader European and American effort to tighten the screws on the crypto ecosystem around Russia. In recent months, the European Union has expanded sanctions on Russia by targeting crypto structures that could be used to bypass financial restrictions and support activity in Ukraine. That also ties into the wider European debate over stablecoin oversight, where MiCA is back in focus.
Ogienko rejects the criticism and says data providers such as CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, and DeFiLlama lean too heavily on data from centralized exchanges. In his view, that leaves A7A5 looking smaller than it really is, since most of the activity happens in DeFi and does not show up fully in standard market data.
Why This Matters
For European crypto watchers, the dispute is another reminder of how difficult it is to measure activity in DeFi and across less transparent trading channels. The argument over A7A5 is not just about one token. It also raises a bigger question about how regulators, analytics firms, and exchanges should treat crypto that moves outside the usual market structure.
Sanctions and national security specialist Kaitlin Martin says A7A5 mostly remains inside a Russia-linked ecosystem, since Western sanctions keep most major global trading platforms from listing the token. Even so, users can still swap A7A5 into other crypto through Russia-linked services, which means funds can still flow into the wider crypto market for cross-border payments, including commodities trading.
