Ruble-linked stablecoin A7A5 drew attention for high-value transfers

A relatively new ruble-denominated token, A7A5, is showing signs of usage for potential access to dollar liquidity and money laundering. The token carried $9.3B in swaps, mostly originating from whale wallets.

A newly launched stablecoin A7A5, which is backed by Russian rubles, has shown significant volumes originating from whale wallets. The asset still has a relatively small supply and volumes, but may still be used to shift assets into USDT, unlocking dollar-based liquidity and bypassing embargoes against Russian capital.

In its early trading stage, A7A5 only has a single Uniswap V2 trading pair, in addition to being used on the newly launched Grinex platform. Grinex appeared just months after US authorities seized the assets of another shady exchange frequented by Russian traders, Garantex.

Tether, Inc. was also involved, freezing $23M in USDT tokens. The potential for freezing assets led to the creation of a new, presumably censorship-free token. A7A5 has both TRON and Ethereum versions, but its main use case is to be swapped into USDT.

Is A7A5 a money-laundering asset?

The A7A5 token was created by A7, a Russian company, where the Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor has a majority stake. Shor fled Moldova after being convicted of $1B bank fraud in 2019. The businessman is now a Russian citizen residing in Moscow. Shor has also been linked to alleged attempts to buy votes in the latest Moldovan elections.

The rest of the stake in the A7 company is held by Promsvyazbank (PSB), a state-owned financial company. The bank has also faced sanctions for servicing Russia’s military-industrial complex. The A7 company was created in October 2024, while the A7A5 asset appeared in January and only recently gained additional listings.

The ownership behind the token led to a recent report from the Center for Information Resilience, further backing the theory that A7A5 is intended for swapping out whale wallets and moving capitals. As of June 2025, A7A5 was heavily clustered, with most of the supply held in some of the leading wallets. Based on Bubblemaps data, the token is held in both large-scale wallets, and in multiple smaller, but connected addresses.

A7A5 shows significant clustering and transfers between connected whale-sized wallets. | Source: Bubblemaps

A7A5 itself has created a social media presence, touting its backing by Ruble-denominated deposits in PSB.

On-chain and off-chain investigations suggest the A7 company managed to build a ramp for both fiat and crypto to move globally without restrictions or sanctions, for the goal of large money transfers into and out of Russia. The alleged avoidance of sanctions is made more complicated by mixing fiat-based and crypto strategies.

A7 has created a shared digital infrastructure, potentially linking general crypto usage with Shor’s influence-trading and political activities in Moldova. A7 alsohas connections to companies registered in the Seychelles and the UAE, in addition to multiple domains suggesting new trading platforms.

A7A5 team claims full independence

The team of A7A5 claims the allegations of connections to the original company are untrue. The team replied to the Financial Times requests, stating it is now working on the stablecoin as a source of volatile trading opportunity, leveraging the unpredictable performance of the ruble. The token’s team is active on social media, while denying connections to the original company.

‘At the early stage we did cooperate with the technical team of “A7”, but in May we decided to separate completely due to different visions of development strategy. Today “A7A5” is a fully independent and autonomous project,’ replied the team.

Shor, however, has been on record stating that crypto is one of the available payment gateways of A7, specifically offering A7A5 to the firm’s clients.

A7A5 shows suspicious whale-sized swaps

Most of the supply of A7A5 is on the TRON network, for over 11B tokens. The asset has a token supply of around 12B, valued at just $156K. However, the asset has been engaged in large-scale swaps, moving funds back and forth between TRON-based USDT and A7A5.

Based on FT reports, the token has so far been used to move up to $9.3B. Most of the activity for the stablecoin on TRON is also linked to just eight identified wallets linked to the Grinex exchange. The wallets often move significant sums, paying high gas fees, mostly for access to dollarized USDT on TRON.

At the same time, on Uniswap, A7A5 has just around $56M in locked liquidity, and is used for minor swaps of a few hundred USDT.

A7A5 currently claims some of the large-scale wallets are mostly used for a form of DeFi yield, without showing additional details. The token was only recently added to DeBank, and may be closely watched if it spreads into the crypto ecosystem. So far, A7A5 has limited potential for influence on DeFi, and is isolated into the TRON ecosystem of projects.

The stablecoin team also posts regular reserve reports in rubles, also stating the token’s potential yield. Currently, A7A5 has minimal volumes compared to other DeFi hubs, but poses additional risk for being linked to Russian money-laundering.