Elliptic report: Five crypto platforms assist Russia in evading sanctions

According to a report by blockchain analysis company Elliptic, after the Russian trading platform Garantex was blocked by the US in March 2025, at least five encrypted trading platforms related to Russia continued to provide funding channels for sanctioned entities, most of which have not yet been sanctioned. The report mentioned that the peer-to-peer platform Bitpapa was included in the sanctions list by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in March 2024, with approximately 9.7% of its outflow funds flowing to sanctioned targets and frequently changing wallet addresses to evade monitoring. ABCeX, which has not been sanctioned, has processed at least $11 billion in cryptocurrency transactions and has significant financial dealings with Garantex and Aifory Pro. On chain data from Exmo shows that it shares custody wallet infrastructure with the Russian platform Exmo.me and has conducted over $19.5 million in transactions with sanctioned entities. Rapira traded over $72 million directly with Grinex, while Aifory Pro helped users bypass Western service restrictions through USDT virtual cards.