The European Union (EU) released its “largest package” of sanctions in two years against Russia, describing the measures as far-reaching and restrictive. They specifically target crypto with a total ban on providers and platforms established in that country.
“Russia is becoming increasingly dependent on cryptocurrencies for international transactions,” the EU said in a statement on April 23. “The EU is introducing a total sectoral ban on providers and platforms established in Russia that allow the transfer and exchange of crypto-assets.”
The bloc also banned the Central Bank of Russia digital currency (CBDC), the ruble-pegged RUBx stablecoin, and all EU support for the development of the digital ruble.
The sanctions include measures against 20 Russian banks and four third-country financial institutions and entities that connect to the Russian System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), the Russian banking messaging network, according to a Chainalysis report.
The blockchain intelligence firm said the EU also imposed sanctions on TengriCoin, a Kyrgyz crypto exchange operating as Meer.kg where significant amounts of the state-backed stablecoin A7A5 are traded.
This measure follows years of escalating enforcement targeting the wider Garantex-Grinex-A7A5 ecosystem, which has been widely tracked, Chainalysis noted.
As documented, A7A5 has been productive, processing $119.7 billion to date and acting as a purpose-built settlement rail designed to bridge sanctioned Russian companies into the global financial system, the firm said. In the 2026 Crypto Crime Report, this figure exceeded $93.3 billion in less than a year.
“The new measures now create an ecosystem-wide crypto restriction on Russia and Belarus,” the blockchain intelligence firm said.
The firm said that people from the EU are now no longer allowed to trade with cryptocurrency service providers (CASPs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms from Russia and Belarus. They are also barred from providing Markets in Crypto-Asset Regulation (MiCA) crypto services to Belarusian individuals and entities.
The EU also stated that “netting transactions with Russian agents are now prohibited to prevent circumvention of EU sanctions.”
Countries referred to in the sanctions package in relation to financial services, trade flows or intermediary activity include Kyrgyzstan, China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
