The fall of A7A5: how sanctions strangled the ruble stablecoin

A7A5 was designed to be unstoppable. A ruble-pegged cryptoasset issued in Kyrgyzstan, backed by a sanctioned Russian state bank, it was built to let Russian businesses move money beyond the reach of sanctions. For its first year it worked, with more than $100 billion flowing through it. Today its transaction volumes are down 96% and its only significant exchange is offline. This is the story of how coordinated sanctions by the US, UK and EU, enforced through blockchain analytics, stifled a token that nobody could switch off.

A stablecoin built for sanctions evasion