Cryptocurrency change Garantex Europe, which was sanctioned on Thursday, might have already got a contingency plan permitting it to skirt the affect of the US actions, blockchain intelligence agency TRM Labs stated.
On Thursday, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex a second time, together with its successor, Grinex.
However, TRM Labs stated in a report on Thursday that the sanctions could also be ineffective, as entities like Garantex “seem to arrange contingency plans properly prematurely of anticipated enforcement measures,” which permit them to shortly migrate shoppers, infrastructure and funds to successor platforms.
Garantex was a key conduit utilized by ransomware gangs for laundering ill-gotten positive aspects, darknet market transactions and the motion of different illicit funds. OFAC estimates it processed billions in crypto transactions from 2019 to March 2025.
Successors lined up months prematurely
US, German and Finnish authorities took down Garantex’s infrastructure in March, however in response to TRM Labs, Kyrgyz authorities data present Grinex was included in December 2024, properly earlier than the seizure, and was able to take up the mantle.
Wallets related to Garantex started transferring funds into Russian ruble pegged stablecoin A7A5 in January 2025, weeks earlier than the takedown, “underscoring foreknowledge of impending enforcement and the intent to determine a sanctions-resistant value-transfer channel,” the blockchain intelligence agency stated.
Garantex was estimated to have processed greater than $100 million in illicit transactions till its preliminary sanctions by OFAC in 2022, and tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} extra following the designation.
“The March 2025 multinational takedown didn’t halt these actions. Instead, Garantex’s management shortly activated a contingency plan that seems to have been in place for months,” TRM Labs stated.
“In the times following the Garantex disruption, Telegram channels linked to the change started selling Grinex as a brand new platform with acquainted performance.”
Meer change probably one other backup plan
Another crypto change often known as Meer was among the many first to checklist A7A5 and has comparable options and buying and selling interfaces to Garantex and Grinex, in response to TRM Labs.
The website was additionally registered in December 2024, across the identical time as each Grinex and A7A5.
Related: Global Ledger detects $15M of Garantex belongings flowing regardless of Tether’s freeze
The timing factors to “coordinated improvement,” TRM Labs stated, and Meer’s surge in buying and selling quantity following the March 2025 enforcement motion on Garantex suggests “it might have served as an extra channel for sustaining flows,” related to the community’s illicit monetary exercise.
A7A5 central to sanctions evasion too
A key a part of the transition from Garantex to Grinex after the takedown was the introduction of the A7A5 token, which helped facilitate the motion and restoration of frozen buyer funds.
TRM Labs stated the Garantex–Grinex–A7A5 nexus is a “essential case research” in monitoring illicit exercise migration and will immediate enhanced due diligence to fiat-pegged tokens with non-transparent governance.
“The case additional illustrates how fiat-pegged tokens — typically marketed as routine settlement or compensation devices — will be repurposed into core elements of sanctions-evasion methods when linked to opaque company networks and sanctioned monetary establishments,” the agency added.
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