Five Crypto Exchanges Help Russia Dodge Sanctions: Elliptic

Five crypto exchanges are allegedly helping Russians skirt international sanctions, filling a vacuum left by Russian exchange Garantex after it was taken down last year, according to crypto analytics firm Elliptic.

Elliptic said in a report on Saturday that the crypto exchanges Bitpapa, ABCeX, Exmo, Rapira and Aifory Pro are allowing Russian ruble-to-crypto conversions. The crypto then can be transferred across borders “without passing through any intermediaries” and converted to another fiat currency.

“Despite growing regulatory pressure, many of these exchanges, some with nominal registrations outside Russia, still facilitate high volumes of cryptoasset trading linked to sanctioned entities,” the company said.

The network reportedly sprang up after authorities took down the Russian exchange Garantex’s website in March, which was heavily sanctioned in mid-2022 for facilitating crypto linked to illicit activity and helping Russia skirt sanctions imposed after the country invaded Ukraine that year.

Chainalysis reported last month that sanctions had pushed the total value of crypto received by illicit addresses in 2025 to $154 billion — the highest-ever figure — due to “unprecedented volumes associated with nation-states.”

Bitpapa is the only exchange already sanctioned

Bitpapa was the only exchange that Elliptic documented had already been sanctioned, after the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated it in March 2024 for supporting sanctions evasion.

The company found that around 9.7% of Bitpapa’s outgoing crypto funds are destined for OFAC-sanctioned targets and said the exchange “manages its wallets specifically to evade sanctions enforcement by constantly rotating addresses.”

Elliptic said that the exchange ABCeX is operating an office in Moscow’s Federation Tower, the same location where Garantex operated, and has processed at least $11 billion in crypto, with “significant amounts” being sent to Garantex and Aifory Pro.

In its most significant finding, Elliptic claimed that Exmo is still operating in Russia, despite the exchange saying it exited the country after its invasion of Ukraine by selling its business to Exmo.me.

The company reported that Exmo.com and Exmo.me “continue to share the same custodial wallet infrastructure” that allows “funds from the Russian-facing platform to be co-mingled with the Western-facing entity” and have conducted over $19.5 million in direct transactions with sanctioned entities.

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Elliptic also reported on Rapira, an exchange based in the country of Georgia with an office in Moscow, which it said had engaged in over $72 million in direct transactions with the sanctioned exchange Grinex, Garantex’s successor.

The last exchange Elliptic featured was Aifory Pro, which serves Moscow, Dubai and Türkiye and “explicitly facilitates the bypass of service restrictions” by offering virtual payment cards using USDt (USDT) that can pay for foreign services blocked in Russia.

Russia’s finance ministry and central bank had reportedly called on the government earlier this month to speed up the rollout of crypto regulations, as the adoption of digital assets by Russians is booming.

The European Union is also aiming to pass on Monday a sanctions package that would ban all crypto transactions with Russia, a broad measure designed to close off the technology to the country.

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