Crypto Exchanges Facilitate Sanctions Evasion for Russia

Crypto Exchanges Facilitate Sanctions Evasion

Blockchain intelligence data reveals that several crypto exchanges have maintained financial links to sanctioned Russian entities, allowing them to bypass traditional banking oversight through cryptocurrency conversions.

The services convert rubles into cryptocurrencies and route them abroad via peer-to-peer and broker networks, making it challenging for regulators to track the origin of funds.

One exchange, Bitpapa, has been linked to over 10% of its outgoing crypto flows reaching sanctioned entities, including direct exposure to Garantex. The platform also rotates wallet addresses to avoid detection by transaction monitoring systems, obscuring the Russian origin of funds when they reach overseas services.

Another exchange, ABCeX, facilitates both order-book and P2P ruble trading and has processed over $11 billion in crypto assets, with substantial transfers to Garantex and Aifory Pro.