Japan freezes assets of Russian crypto exchange Garantex

Japan has added Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex to its asset-freeze list, the country's foreign, finance and trade ministries said on Oct. 2, as part of new measures under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act tied to the situation in Ukraine. The ministries added 33 Russia-linked entities and nine individuals to the list. Garantex appears as entry No. 402 under the name Garantex Europe OU.

One crypto exchange among 33 entities

The annex published by the Ministry of Finance lists the newly added entities as Nos. 370 through 402, or 33 in total. Most are research institutes and plants, including the Kaluga Research Institute of Radio Engineering, Uraldronzavod and the Lobaev Foundation, a weapons technology development fund. The only crypto exchange is Garantex, the last entry on the list. The list gives Garantex's addresses as St. Petersburg and the 14th floor of the Federation East Tower in Moscow City.

Once an entity is on the asset-freeze list, payments to it from Japan and capital transactions with it, such as deposit, trust and loan contracts, require government permission. The government said the step was based on "measures that major countries have decided to take" and was meant to contribute to international efforts for peace. On the same day it also announced an export ban on four entities outside Russia and Belarus, restrictions on services for 35 vessels and an export ban on goods that help strengthen Russia's industrial base.

Japan follows the US four and a half years later

Garantex was sanctioned in the United States and Europe well before Japan acted. Key events:

1. 2019Launched as an exchange registered in Estonia
2. February 2022Lost its Estonian license
3. April 2022Sanctioned by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
4. Feb. 24, 2025Included in the EU's 16th sanctions package against Russia
5. March 6, 2025US, German and Finnish authorities seized its domain and froze more than $26 million
6. Aug. 14, 2025US redesignated Garantex and sanctioned its successor exchange, Grinex
7. Oct. 2, 2026Japan added it to the asset-freeze list

According to the US Treasury, Garantex conducted most of its operations from Moscow and St. Petersburg and maintained accounts for hundreds of thousands of users. The Treasury said the exchange received millions of dollars directly from the proceeds of Russia-linked ransomware attacks, including Conti, Black Basta and LockBit, and had processed over $100 million in transactions linked to illicit activities since 2019. The Justice Department said Garantex had processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since April 2019.

Business continued after the 2022 sanctions. According to the indictment, Garantex moved its operational cryptocurrency wallets to different addresses every day to make it difficult for US-based exchanges to identify and block transactions with its accounts.

Operators charged, exchange renamed

The US Justice Department unsealed an indictment against two Garantex operators on March 7, 2025. Aleksej Besciokov, a Lithuanian national who served as the primary technical administrator, was arrested in India after the indictment was unsealed. He and co-founder Aleksandr Mira Serda are charged with money laundering conspiracy, and Besciokov is also charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The money laundering conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Authorities seized three domains, including garantex.org, while German and Finnish law enforcement seized servers. The US State Department offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Mira Serda and up to $1 million for other key leaders.

The exchange did not disappear. According to the Treasury, Garantex employees created Grinex immediately after the takedown and moved Garantex customer deposits to it, and Grinex has since facilitated billions of dollars in cryptocurrency transactions. The Treasury said A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin issued by Kyrgyz firm Old Vector, was used to compensate Garantex users whose funds were frozen in the takedown. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs said entities like Garantex "appear to prepare contingency plans well in advance of anticipated enforcement measures," Cointelegraph reported.

On Oct. 1, a day before Japan's announcement, the United States designated the A7 network, the payment network behind A7A5, as a transnational criminal organization. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said more than 180 entities exchanged at least $179.1 billion using A7A5 between February 2025 and June 2026.

Garantex, Grinex and A7A5 are not traded on the Korean won markets of Upbit or Bithumb. Tether (USDT) traded at 1,352 won on both Upbit and Bithumb at 7:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 5.