The European Union has adopted the 20th package of sanctions against Russia, calling it the most ambitious in the last two years. As part of the package, the EU imposes a complete industry-wide ban on cryptocurrency organizations and platforms established in Russia that deal with the transfer of funds, RBC writes.
“Due to the sweeping sanctions on the financial sector, Russia is increasingly relying on cryptocurrencies for international transactions,” the report said.
Based on this, the EU is imposing sanctions against “a Kyrgyz organization operating an exchange on which significant volumes of the Russian state-backed A7A5 stablecoin are traded.”
At the end of 2025, the A7A5 steiblcoin, which is pegged to the Russian ruble, held 43% of the global non-dollar digital currency market. About 99% of transactions fall on the Tron blockchain. This is stated in a Forbes piece published at the end of March 2026.
According to estimates of the British company Elliptic, engaged in blockchain analytics, the volume of transactions using A7A5 in 2025 exceeded $100 billion, with about 250 thousand transactions using 41.3 thousand wallets. During peak periods, the daily turnover reached about $1.5 billion.
Forbes notes that the parent structure of A7A5 – A7 LLC – is 51% owned by Ilan Shor, a Moldovan oligarch convicted of fraud for embezzling $1 billion from several banks. Shor has previously been subject to US, British and EU sanctions. The remaining 49% in the A7 LLC structure is owned by Promsvyazbank. The legal issuer is Old Vector LLC, an organization registered in Kyrgyzstan.
A7A5 is a stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble 1 to 1. The currency is backed by ruble deposits in banks.
The EU is also imposing a full industry ban on providers and platforms registered in Russia that allow the transfer and exchange of cryptoassets.
At the same time, the EU is banning transactions in the RUBx cryptocurrency. This is a ruble-stablecoin launched by Rostec in July 2025 on the Tron blockchain.
In addition, any support from the EU in the development of the digital ruble is banned. Offsetting transactions with Russian agents are also banned to avoid circumventing EU sanctions.
This is not the first ban
The first EU ban on cryptocurrencies was introduced in 2022 as part of the eighth package of sanctions. At that time, Russians were banned from using cryptocurrency wallets.
The first sanctions prohibited to provide services to Russians only to companies from the bloc, but in 2024 with the 14th package sanctions spread wider. It became forbidden to work with companies located outside Russia, but paying in cryptocurrencies with its residents for dual-use goods.
