“They’re buying up everything they can.” How Russians are using cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions worth billions of dollars a month

Russians are actively using non-traditional currency, cryptocurrency, to make payments to circumvent sanctions, this information is actively monitored by Ukraine and its partners.

Russians give the greatest preference to the USDT token, its turnover, according to a rough estimate, is USDT 5−7 billion per month. This was stated by the Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy of Ukraine Vladyslav Vlasyuk, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

In his opinion, this is an insignificant indicator, if we take into account the total volume of Russian trade, but it also gives the Russians room for significant maneuvers in circumventing the established restrictions.

«Cryptocurrency, stablecoin, USDT, in a word — non-traditional currency. Thanks, in particular, to insider information, we have a lot of information about what is happening in this market: how Russians buy up everything they can in Central Asian markets in these areas», — Vlasyuk said.

According to him, information about the use of crypto assets by Russians to circumvent sanctions has been actively monitored since August 2024 and taken into account when communicating with partners.

«As a result, in December 2024, the United Kingdom adopted a sanctions decision against a group that circumvented sanctions through cryptocurrencies. The Americans also became very interested in this area. We had detailed dialogues with the US and British teams on the grounds of the circumvention of sanctions using crypto», — the commissioner reported.

Vlasyuk suggested that, in view of this, we should expect similar sanctions decisions in the future. “Honestly, I don't see how Russians will be able to use non-traditional forms of money in the long term, because it's all relatively easy to technically track and stop,” he concluded.