Crypto hack goes political as Grinex blames ‘Western special services’

Grinex, a sanctioned Kyrgyzstan-registered crypto exchange, has disclosed a hack of over one billion rubles.

In an announcement posted to the exchange’s official Telegram channel, the “targeted attack” was attributed to “Western special services,” and is aimed at “causing direct damage to Russia’s financial sovereignty.”

The loss sees Grinex “forced to suspend its operations.”

It says “attempts to destabilize the domestic financial sector have reached a new level – the direct theft of assets of Russian citizens and companies.”

Blockchain forensics firm Elliptic analysed outflows from affected addresses listed by Grinex and tallied a total of $15 million of $USDT. The funds were then swapped to TRX or ETH to avoid being frozen by Tether.

Sanctions evasion

Grinex was sanctioned by the US, UK and EU between August and October last year. It was then suspected of facilitating up to $6 billion of sanctions evasion in the following months.

The US Treasury calls Grinex the “successor” to Garantex, another crypto exchange which “directly facilitated… over $100 million in transactions linked to illicit activities since 2019.”

According to Elliptic, Grinex is also the main venue for trading of A7A5, used for “cross-border payment services to Russian businesses seeking to circumvent Western sanctions.”

A7A5, via Grinex, provides Russian businesses access to the “global liquidity of $USDT without maintaining prolonged exposure to the risk of wallet freezing.”

The token topped over $100 billion of transactions by January, less than a year after being launched.