Ruble stablecoin A7A5 trading volume collapsed 96% from peak amid sanctions pressure.
DeFi & Yields ·
A ruble-pegged stablecoin called A7A5 has seen its average daily transaction volume collapse by 96% from its July 2025 peak to around $24.3 million in June 2026, according to analysis by Elliptic. The token, launched in January 2025 and issued by a Kyrgyzstan-based company with backing from a sanctioned Russian state bank, had moved over $100 billion across roughly 251,000 transactions during its first year of operation. No new issuance of the asset has occurred since July 2025.
The stablecoin was designed to serve Russian businesses seeking to move money beyond the reach of sanctions by offering a ruble-backed alternative to dollar stablecoins that Western entities could freeze. The token's decline follows coordinated sanctions imposed on A7A5 and its infrastructure by the US, UK, and EU during the second half of 2025. These sanctions restrictions, combined with Russian cryptoasset regulation and the offline status of its primary exchange venue, appear to have made the token largely inaccessible to users.
What remains unclear is the precise mechanism by which sanctions enforcement altered user behavior and whether the token's technical infrastructure continues to function on underlying blockchains despite the regulatory pressure.