The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on a group of cryptocurrency exchanges, payment firms and individuals accused of helping Russia evade Western restrictions and finance its war in Ukraine, including crypto exchange Huobi.
The sanctions package from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office targets 18 entities and individuals linked to what officials described as Russia’s “illicit financial infrastructure used to move funds, procure goods and sustain its war.”
Among them are Huobi Global SA, operator of the HTX exchange, Rapira Group LLC, Aifory LLC, Arvix LLC and Bitpapa IC FZC LLC.
HTX is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, with around $3.3 trillion in trading volume last year, according to a blog post from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
Elliptic said the platform is suspected of providing services to both the A7 payment network and Garantex, a Russian crypto exchange previously sanctioned by Western authorities. Garantex rebranded as Grinex earlier this year and last month ceased operations following a $13 million “state-sponsored” hack.
The UK also sanctioned the Open Joint Stock Company “Virtual Asset Issuer”, a Kyrgyzstan-linked company behind the USDKG gold-backed stablecoin, along with several individuals accused of sanctions evasion activity, including Sergey Mendeleev, Igor Gorin, Irina Akopyan and Israeli national Liran Cohen.
The moves mark one of the country’s strongest moves yet against Russia’s use of cryptocurrencies and alternative payment systems. For the first time, the UK applied Regulation 17A of its Russian sanctions regime to crypto exchanges, a tool previously used against sanctioned banks.
Under the rules, UK financial companies and crypto service providers cannot maintain correspondent relationships with the designated entities or process payments linked to them. Companies may also have to freeze funds and track blockchain transactions linked to sanctioned platforms.
Elliptic said the rules could require companies to track transactions across multiple blockchain “hops,” meaning compliance checks would extend beyond direct counterparties to wallets and exchanges that appear anywhere in a transaction chain.
A main focus of the sanctions package is the Kremlin-backed A7 payment network, which British officials say helped process proceeds from Russian oil sales and supported military procurement. Britain says the network moved more than $90 billion last year.
Elliptic said other regulators are likely to be watching closely as Britain tests a new model for applying traditional financial sanctions rules to digital asset markets.
The sanctions took effect immediately. CoinDesk has reached out to Huobi for comment, but did not hear back by press time.
