Illicit crypto volume blasted to an unprecedented high of $158 billion last year, in large part thanks to a trendy new stablecoin that appears designed to evade international sanctions.
Last year’s deluge of illicit crypto activity represents a 145% surge compared to 2024, according to a new report from blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.
Driving that increase is a new Russia-linked stablecoin that has become tremendously popular for evading sanctions and conducting state-aligned sanctioned economic activity. The stablecoin, A7A5, is pegged to the value of the Russian ruble, and became a key vector for illicit crypto activity, particularly sanctions evasion, over the course of last year.
For context, some 95% of inflows to sanctioned entities and jurisdictions in 2025 happened via stablecoins, according to TRM. And last year, 77% of that massive amount of illicit stablecoin activity— over $72 billion worth—was associated with A7A5 alone.
That’s a major shift from past years, when dollar-pegged stablecoins like Tether’s USDT were relied on heavily to fuel illicit activity around the globe. While Tether remains a prevalent vector for sanctions evasion in 2025, A7A5 handily took the cake.
TRM contends that trend underscores how sanctioned nations like Russia are having a tougher time navigating dollar-backed payment rails—and are beginning to rely on bespoke crypto products to not just evade sanctions, but also conduct everyday economic activity.
“A7A5 shows how pressure creates specialization, and how bad actors will build new rails when old ones become harder to use,” Ari Redbord, a former U.S. Treasury official and TRM’s global head of policy, told Decrypt.
“A7A5 was arguably the biggest crypto crime story of the year because it was not trying to be global,” Redbord continued. “It was designed to move value where mainstream channels were being shut off.”
In 2025, per TRM’s report, stablecoin flows to sanctioned entities and jurisdictions decreased by nearly 30% on crypto exchanges with KYC protocols—but skyrocketed by over 200% on decentralized services and exchanges lacking KYC standards.
In other countries besides Russia navigating crippling sanctions in 2025, stablecoin usage was incredibly popular—but not on A7A5. Tether has been incredibly popular in Venezuela, TRM said, and Iran’s illicit crypto activity was “overwhelmingly” concentrated in Tether transactions on Tron, the blockchain network founded by Justin Sun, the Trump family-linked crypto executive.