Overview
- The UK announced a package of 18 designations on Tuesday that immediately freeze assets and prohibit British firms from processing payments or maintaining correspondent ties with the named crypto platforms, banks and enablers.
- Officials named several crypto firms and people in the list, including entities tied to HTX/Huobi, EXMO, Bitpapa, Rapira Group, and Sergey Mendeleev of Garantex, plus a Kyrgyz bank and three Georgia-registered exchanges.
- London alleges one major global exchange channelled more than $1.5 billion to Kremlin-linked entities and says the A7 network claimed to have moved roughly $90 billion last year in transactions that helped finance procurement and oil-related flows.
- The government framed the step as an escalation in allied efforts to close ‘shadow’ rails routed through Central Asia, the Caucasus and third-country registries, and said enforcement and co-ordinated follow-up with partners are under way.
- The move builds on prior EU crypto measures in April and Ukraine’s February sanctions on A7, and ministers said it forms part of a broader strategy to deny Russia the alternative financial routes it has adopted since 2022.