Ukraine Cracks Down: 60 Crypto Firms Sanctioned for Alleged Russia Ties

Kyiv turns the screws on crypto's gray zone—blacklisting dozens of digital asset companies accused of propping up Moscow's war machine.

The sanctions hammer drops

Ukrainian authorities just added 60 cryptocurrency entities to their naughty list. No due process, no mercy—just frozen assets and severed banking ties for firms allegedly funneling rubles through blockchain backchannels.

Decentralized finance meets geopolitical friction

While crypto evangelists preach borderless money, governments keep drawing lines in the sand. This move exposes the industry's uncomfortable truth: anonymity features attracting libertarians also enable wartime capital flight. (But hey—at least it's more transparent than Swiss banks in the 1940s.)

Watch for ripple effects across exchanges as compliance teams scramble. Nothing unites regulators like the smell of wartime profiteering—even in the 'wild west' of digital assets.

Zelenskyy claims Russia has moved billions through one company

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy also disclosed the sanctions in a separate speech, noting that it was based on the recommendations of the National Bank of Ukraine. According to him, the country also worked with its partners on the sanctions list.

He noted that Russia has been moving billions of dollars for its military needs through one of the companies now included on the sanctions list. He said:

“Just through one single company, now included in the sanctions list, and only since the beginning of this year, that is, before the sanctions being imposed, the Russians funneled several billion dollars, primarily for the needs of their military-industrial complex.”

Zelenskyy added that the fact that much of Russia’s traditional financial infrastructure is already restricted due to sanctions has led them to cryptocurrencies. Beyond the 60 crypto entities, the sanctions list also includes 73 individuals who are all Russian citizens and include several top members of the country’s central bank.

While the president acknowledged the difficulty of uniformly imposing these sanctions globally, he noted that Ukraine and its allies share a common goal that makes it achievable. He said:

“We will also synchronize sanctions against them. It’s a challenging task – sanctioning regulations vary around the world – but we all share a common goal: to compel Russia to stop the war and to severely restrict its capabilities.”

Meanwhile, he added that Ukraine is already working on implementing EU sanctions on Russia within its jurisdiction, just as the EU will also apply Ukraine sanctions in its jurisdiction. “Sanctions are already depriving Russia of its future,” he said, “they must significantly complicate the daily functioning of the Russian system.”

Stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble moves over $9 billion

Interestingly, the expansive sanctions against Russia-linked crypto entities are unsurprising given the evidence that Russia is turning to crypto to evade global financial sanctions. While the country has been quietly adopting crypto since the war started in 2022, recent reports suggest it might be doubling down on that approach.

According to a report by Financial Times, a new stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble, A7A5, has moved $9.3 billion in just four months after its launch on Grinex crypto exchange. The stablecoin was launched in Kyrgyzstan by fugitive Moldovan Oligarch Ilan Sor with its reserve assets on a Russia-based and US-sanctioned bank, Promsvyazbank.

The Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) report noted that more than 12 billion tokens are in circulation, worth around $156 million, and just a few users are moving funds around with them.

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