The Office of Foreign Assets Control said it was taking additional action against the crypto exchange after including it on its list of Specially Designated Nationals in 2022. It was the one of the main exchanges used by the Hydra Market Admins.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has redesignated cryptocurrency exchange Garantex Europe to its list of sanctioned entities.

In a Thursday notice, OFAC said it had redesignated Garantex as well as sanctioned its “successor,” Grinex, three Garantex executives and six Russia- and Kyrgyzstani-based companies for allegedly facilitating illicit transactions including ransomware gangs. According to the government agency, the Garantex exchange processed more than $100 million tied to illicit activities since 2019.

The United stated previously sanctioned Garantex in 2022, saying they had ignored Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of terrorism requirements. According to the office, Garantex officers created Grinex as a way to bypass measures taken against the exchange, which included confiscating $26 million in crypto, seizing its website, and indicting two executives.  

The US Department of Justice unsealed indictments against Garantex executives Aleksandr Mira Serda and Aleksej Besciokov in March, leading to the arrest of the latter while he was on holiday in India. He faces charges for conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate US sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money services business.

On Aug. 6, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered that a “corrected” warrant be issued for Mira Serda’s arrest. He remained at large at the time of publication, while US authorities offered up to $6 million in rewards for information leading to his arrest or the arrest of other Garantex executives.

The effectiveness of these sanctions have alreay been called into question with one firm TRM Labs stating that they may already have a contingency plan allowing it to skirt the impact of the US actions.

US, German and Finnish authorities took down Garantex’s infrastructure in March, but according to TRM Labs, Kyrgyz government records show Grinex was incorporated in December 2024, well before the seizure, and was ready to take up the mantle. 

Wallets connected to Garantex began moving funds into Russian ruble pegged stablecoin A7A5 in January 2025, weeks before the takedown, “underscoring foreknowledge of impending enforcement and the intent to establish a sanctions-resistant value-transfer channel,” the blockchain intelligence firm said.

“In the days following the Garantex disruption, Telegram channels linked to the exchange began promoting Grinex as a new platform with familiar functionality.” 

Another crypto exchange known as Meer was among the first to list A7A5 and has similar features and trading interfaces to Garantex and Grinex, according to TRM Labs. 

The site was also registered in December 2024, around the same time as both Grinex and A7A5.

A key part of the transition from Garantex to Grinex after the takedown was the introduction of the A7A5 token, which helped facilitate the movement and recovery of frozen customer funds.

TRM Labs said the Garantex–Grinex–A7A5 nexus is a “critical case study” in monitoring illicit activity migration and should prompt enhanced due diligence to fiat-pegged tokens with non-transparent governance.

“The case further illustrates how fiat-pegged tokens — often marketed as routine settlement or compensation instruments — can be repurposed into core components of sanctions-evasion strategies when linked to opaque corporate networks and sanctioned financial institutions,” the firm added. 

With no solution to stop the Garantex group it appears law enforcement have no means for stopping their operation provided the Russian government do not deem them a national security concern and that they do not leave Russia and Kyrgystan.