This sanctioned Russian stablecoin claims it processes billions, but blockchain analysts disagree

There is a growing dispute brewing between a sanctioned ruble-backed stablecoin issuer and blockchain analytics firms over the actual usage of the Russian-backed stablecoin.

A7A5, the Russian cross-border stablecoin designed to facilitate payments outside Western financial channels, claims it averages about $205 million in daily trading volume and has processed $34.4 billion between Jan. 1 and June 17 this year.

According to Oleg Ogienko, A7A5’s director for regulatory affairs, most of the tokens’s activity takes place in decentralized finance (DeFi). On these DeFi platforms, users typically don’t need to identify themselves, and trades can occur directly between crypto wallets rather than through centralized exchanges.

However, some blockchain analytics firms, including TRM Labs and Elliptic, are disputing that framing.

Chris Keegan, an analyst at TRM Labs, said the firm’s analysis places A7A5’s average daily volume closer to $75 million, with activity declining in recent months. He also claims that about 34% of observed transaction volume appears to consist of circular fund movements that artificially inflate activity.

“We truly don’t think there is large-scale, authentic usage of A7A5 outside of A7,” Keegan said in an email, referring to the token’s issuer. He added that transaction volumes routinely collapse on weekends because much of the activity appears tied to business-to-business transfers involving the Russia-linked exchange Grinex.

Meanwhile, Tom Robinson, co-founder of another blockchain analytics firm, Elliptic, also said the token has lost momentum. He said that monthly transaction volumes have fallen by more than 90% since January and are down 96% from their peak last year, following sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and the United Kingdom, as well as the collapse of Grinex earlier this year.

“The cherry-picked trading and transaction figures provided by A7A5 are consistent with Elliptic’s analysis,” Robinson said. “However, they conceal the obvious trend: that A7A5 is failing in its goal of enabling Russian sanctions evasion.”

A7A5’s Ogienko denied these claims and said that because the token’s activity mostly takes place in DeFi, it is not fully captured by major crypto data sites. “These outdated principles and metrics do not provide users around the world with objective information about A7A5,” he told CoinDesk in a statement via Telegram.

He said data providers, including CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko and DeFiLlama rely too heavily on centralized exchange data, creating what he claimed “a generally discriminatory approach, contrary to the principles of the United Nations.”