They Planned For This?! 🤯

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Right. So, Garantex Europe, a cryptocurrency exchange that apparently thinks rules are more… suggestions, got sanctioned again on Thursday. And it turns out, this isn’t a case of being caught with one’s digital trousers down. Oh no. According to those clever folks at TRM Labs – the kind of people who follow the money, or in this case, the blocks of data – Garantex was likely expecting it. 🙄 They’ve got ‘contingency plans’, you see. Like a particularly resourceful badger preparing for a slightly larger, more financially motivated, eviction.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) threw the book at Garantex (again) and its shiny new successor, Grinex. But TRM Labs suggests this whole thing might be a bit like trying to nail jelly to a wall. Apparently, exchanges like Garantex have a knack for “preparing contingency plans well in advance of anticipated enforcement measures”. It’s almost *admirable*, if they weren’t busy helping people launder money. Almost.

They’re rather good at shuffling clients, infrastructure, and funds over to successor platforms, which is a polite way of saying “running away with the loot.” OFAC estimates Garantex moved a rather impressive $96 billion in crypto between 2019 and March 2025. That’s a lot of digital pennies. And probably a few rather large digital pounds, euros, and questionable altcoins.

Successors lined up months in advance

Authorities did a rather definitive ‘taking down’ of Garantex’s infrastructure in March. You’d think that would be that, wouldn’t you? But then you’d underestimate the ingenuity (and frankly, the cynicism) of those involved. Kyrgyz government records – because, of course, Kyrgyzstan is involved – show Grinex was registered in December 2024. Months before the authorities came knocking. Seems they were already waiting in the wings, ready to pick up the pieces. It’s practically a relay race of shadowy finances. 🏃‍♂️

And get this: wallets linked to Garantex started moving funds into a Russian ruble pegged stablecoin called A7A5 in *January* 2025. Weeks before the takedown! “Underscoring foreknowledge of impending enforcement and the intent to establish a sanctions-resistant value-transfer channel,” says TRM Labs. A fancy way of saying, “They knew it was coming and had a plan to dodge it.”

Garantex had already been handling over $100 million in… shall we say, ‘unclean’ transactions before the 2022 sanctions. And *more* after. But the March 2025 kerfuffle didn’t stop anything, apparently. It merely activated a plan that’s been brewing for months. Telegram channels linked to the exchange started touting Grinex as the new hotness, with all the “familiar functionality.” Because who *doesn’t* want a platform that feels comfortably shady?

Meer exchange possibly another backup plan

Now, things get really interesting. Enter Meer, another crypto exchange. It was one of the first to list A7A5, and – you guessed it – has suspiciously similar features to Garantex and Grinex. Registered in, you guessed it again, December 2024! TRM Labs reckons this is “coordinated development.” Which is code for “they’re all in on it.” And trading volume on Meer jumped after the Garantex crackdown, suggesting it may be another escape route for illicit funds. A back-up plan for the back-up plan, perhaps? 🤔

A7A5 central to sanctions evasion too

The A7A5 token became rather important in the grand scheme of things, helping to move and recover funds that authorities had, for a brief moment, frozen. TRM Labs calls the Garantex-Grinex-A7A5 situation a “critical case study.” A polite way of saying ‘this is a mess, and we need to figure out how to stop it’. They’re suggesting extra scrutiny of these fiat-pegged tokens, especially the ones with less-than-transparent governance. Because, apparently, they can be “repurposed into core components of sanctions-evasion strategies.” Who knew? 🤷‍♀️

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2025-08-15 09:23