{"id":9859,"date":"2026-04-22T16:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/9859\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:22:12","slug":"sanctioned-crypto-exchange-tied-to-russia-hit-by-13-million-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/9859\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctioned Crypto Exchange Tied to Russia Hit by $13 Million Hack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Eurasianet <\/a> – Apr 22, 2026, 11:00 AM CDT<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\nGrinex, a Kyrgyz-registered exchange tied to Russian sanctions evasion, lost over $13 million in a major hack and halted operations.
\nThe platform facilitated transactions using a ruble-pegged cryptocurrency widely used to bypass international financial restrictions.
\nU.S. authorities had already sanctioned Grinex, highlighting growing concern over crypto\u2019s role in enabling cross-border sanctions evasion. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hacker<\/p>\n

A Kyrgyz-registered cryptocurrency exchange, slapped with Western sanctions for helping Russia finance its war effort in Ukraine, has experienced a hack that sucked over 1 billion rubles (over $13 million) out of users\u2019 crypto wallets.<\/p>\n

The exchange, Grinex, announced via its Telegram channel on April 16 that it was suspending operations. Exchange representative alleged the hack was the work of foreign special services seeking to disrupt Russian efforts to evade sanctions and finance the procurement of needed goods and technologies,\u00a0RFE\/RL\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe digital traces and the nature of the attack indicate an unprecedented level of resources and technologies available exclusively to structures of unfriendly states,\u201d a statement issued by Grinex\u00a0read<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Grinex exchange was launched in mid-2025 after EU sanctions and a US Justice Department\u00a0probe<\/a>\u00a0prompted the closure of another crypto exchange called Garantex. Grinex facilitated the use of a ruble-pegged cryptocurrency, A7A5, which became a go-to means for Russian sanction busters to gain access to international currency markets, the\u00a0Financial\u00a0Times<\/a>\u00a0first reported.<\/p>\n

A7A5 was used in over $1 billion worth of transactions per day, mostly via Grinex, the crypto analysis firm Elliptic\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0last July.<\/p>\n

\u201cA7A5\u2019s growing accessibility and liquidity presents a challenge to international sanctions efforts, as it provides another tool for Russian entities to engage in cross-border transfers outside of the banking system,\u201d the Elliptic analysis stated.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury Department\u00a0sanctioned<\/a>\u00a0Grinex last August for \u201cenabling sanctions evasion and cyber criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyrgyz government officials have repeatedly denied accusations of enabling Russian sanctions evasion activities.<\/p>\n

By Eurasianet<\/a><\/p>\n

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Back to homepage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Eurasianet – Apr 22, 2026, 11:00 AM CDT Grinex, a Kyrgyz-registered exchange tied to Russian sanctions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5828,5830,5827,4962,5831,5066,830,5,454,1196,5829],"class_list":{"0":"post-9859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-a7a5","9":"tag-crypto-exchange-breach","10":"tag-cryptocurrency-hack","11":"tag-cyberattack","12":"tag-elliptic","13":"tag-grinex","14":"tag-kyrgyzstan","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-russia-sanctions","17":"tag-sanctions-evasion","18":"tag-ukraine-war-finance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}