[Elliptic: Five Crypto Exchanges Assist Russia in Evading Sanctions, Filling the Gap After Garantex Shutdown] BlockBeats News, February 22: Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that after the U.S. seized the sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex in March 2025, at least five Russia-linked crypto exchanges continued to provide financial channels for sanctioned entities, most of which have not yet been sanctioned. The report mentioned that only the peer-to-peer platform Bitpapa was added to the U.S. Treasury Department's OFAC sanctions list in March 2024. According to Elliptic, approximately 9.7% of its outgoing funds were directed to sanctioned entities, and it frequently changed wallet addresses to evade monitoring. The unsanctioned exchange ABCeX is alleged to operate out of the Moscow Federation Tower (the former location of Garantex) and has processed at least $11 billion in crypto transactions, with significant financial ties to Garantex and Aifory Pro. Another platform, Exmo, claimed to have exited the Russian market following the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, but on-chain data shows that it still shares custody wallet infrastructure with the Russian platform Exmo.me and has conducted over $19.5 million in direct transactions with sanctioned entities such as Garantex, Grinex, and Chatex. Additionally, Rapira is accused of conducting over $72 million in direct transactions with the sanctioned platform Grinex. Aifory Pro reportedly provides cash-to-crypto exchange services in Moscow, Dubai, and Turkey and helps users bypass Western service restrictions through USDT virtual cards. Elliptic pointed out that after Garantex was shut down, related sanction-evasion activities did not disappear but instead became more dispersed across multiple platforms. A previous report by Chainalysis stated that in 2025, crypto addresses involved in illicit activities received a total of $154 billion, with transactions involving the Russian ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 exceeding $93.3 billion. TRM Labs estimated that the total volume of illicit crypto transactions for the year was approximately $158 billion.