PANews reported on January 22 that a new report from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic shows that the ruble-based stablecoin A7A5 has surpassed $100 billion in on-chain transaction volume since its launch in January 2025. This stablecoin, spearheaded by the Russian company A7 LLC, aims to help Russian companies circumvent Western sanctions. A7A5's primary function is as a bridge asset between the ruble and USDT, with a total trading volume reaching $17.3 billion, the vast majority of which occurs on exchanges like Grinex in Kyrgyzstan. Despite the significant trading volume, its growth has been significantly limited since the US and other countries imposed sanctions on A7A5 in August 2025. New token issuance has essentially ceased since the end of July, and daily trading volume has dropped from a peak of $1.5 billion to approximately $500 million. Major DEXs such as Uniswap have added it to their token blocking lists, and USDT liquidity injections into their own DEXs have decreased significantly. Sanctions have resulted in users facing account freezes when transferring USDT from A7A5 to mainstream exchanges, increasingly isolating it from the broader crypto ecosystem.