Elliptic traced many of these transactions to companies controlled by Ilan Shor, a sanctioned Moldovan fugitive and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Shor, who remains under US sanctions, reportedly used digital assets to maintain financial lifelines for Russian entities restricted from the global banking system.
Founded in 2024, A7 was designed to help Russian firms evade sanctions and conduct cross-border settlements. The company is 49% owned by Promsvyazbank (PSB), a Russian state bank serving the defense sector.
PSB and A7 remain under US sanctions due to their links to the war economy.
According to Elliptic, leaked internal messages revealed A7’s heavy reliance on USDT for treasury operations and payments.
In one instance, an A7 employee requested a transfer of 2 million USDT, exposing a wallet that had processed roughly $677 million in trades.
However, this effort has not yielded substantial progress as the digital asset has only $496 million in supply and has processed an estimated $68 billion in transactions.
