Grinex’s reach expands to $1.66B despite history of sanctions

Grinex, a cryptocurrency trade recognized because the suspected successor to the sanctioned Russian platform Garantex, has reportedly moved greater than $1.66 billion in crypto by way of exchanges, regardless of pink flags raised by blockchain analytics agency World Ledger.

Garantex had its infrastructure taken down by US, German and Finnish authorities in March and has since reportedly shifted its operations to Grinex.

World Ledger initially instructed Cointelegraph that varied cryptocurrency exchanges had round $1 billion in fund publicity to Grinex, as of early Might.

However the motion hasn’t stopped, the Swiss blockchain information specialist mentioned. By Might 30, researchers had raised their estimates as a consequence of steady fund flows out and in of Grinex.

“You may see [the amount is] devastating [and] it’s rising each day,” Yury Serov, analysis head of investigations at World Ledger, instructed Cointelegraph.

Grinex wallets proceed transferring USDt on Tron

In keeping with compliance firm Bitrace, $649 billion in stablecoin flows had been exposed to high-risk addresses in 2024. The agency mentioned that greater than 70% of probably illicit stablecoin transactions occurred on the Tron community through USDt (USDT).

The noticed fund flows out of Grinex are additionally in Tron-based USDt. On the time of writing, World Ledger has accounted for $2.41 billion in transactional publicity to crypto providers and wallets. Of that quantity, $1.66 billion moved out and in of 180 cryptocurrency exchanges, additionally known as digital asset service suppliers (VASPs).

“Let’s say there’s one VASP sending funds and one other VASP receiving them. Below the Travel Rule recommendations, the receiving VASP should receive key particulars, such because the identify of the sending VASP and different related figuring out info,” Serov mentioned.

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World Ledger declined to call the exchanges uncovered to Grinex transfers however mentioned that some have been notified of its suspicious fund move evaluation.

“A few of them, now we have acquired suggestions stating that they’ve acknowledged what now we have offered them,” mentioned Serov, including that a few of its communication makes an attempt have gone unanswered.

Cointelegraph independently contacted six of the world’s largest crypto companies working globally to ask whether or not they had been notified of, or detected, fund flows from Grinex.

Of the exchanges contacted, solely Binance responded, stating that it screens and blocks each direct and oblique publicity to sanctioned people and entities.

“Whereas it’s not attainable to keep away from incoming deposits, we do take motion towards the purchasers. We additionally stop customers from sending funds to sanctions-related addresses,” the trade’s spokesperson mentioned.

Most of the transactions recognized by World Ledger had been direct interactions, that means no middleman addresses or obfuscation methods had been used to switch funds from Grinex to the uncovered exchanges.

Cointelegraph tried to contact Grinex however didn’t obtain a response by publication.

Grinex emerges from the shadow of Garantex

In March, US and European authorities introduced a coordinated worldwide operation to disrupt Garantex’s providers. As a part of the crackdown, Tether froze $27 million in stablecoins held on the sanctioned Russian trade.

US regulation enforcement said it seized domains linked to Garantex, whereas German and Finnish authorities confiscated servers internet hosting the trade’s infrastructure. US officers additionally acknowledged they’d obtained earlier server copies containing buyer and accounting information. Garantex allegedly processed round $96 billion in crypto transactions since April 2019.

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Days later, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Aleksej Bešciokov, accused of working Garantex, on US cash laundering prices.

Garantex then allegedly resurfaced as Grinex, based on onchain and offchain information analyzed by World Ledger. The corporate reported that Garantex had moved over $60 million in Russian ruble-backed stablecoins to Grinex, which it described because the trade’s “full-fledged successor.”

World Ledger added that one in all Grinex’s managers claimed clients had personally visited the Garantex workplace and had been actively transferring funds from Garantex to Grinex.

Garantex was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 and by the European Union in February 2025.

Grinex exhibits how platforms survive crackdowns

Within the early days of blockchain expertise, cryptocurrencies provided cybercriminals a handy solution to transfer cash as a consequence of their decentralized and largely unregulated nature.

In the present day, the asset class has matured, attracting rising curiosity from establishments and even nation-states. This shift has accelerated regulatory discussions and pushed the event of superior safety instruments to trace illicit transactions. A number of international locations have now established specialized units devoted to crypto.

Regardless of this progress, important blind spots stay, and illicit actors proceed to take advantage of regulatory arbitrage.

As an illustration, some USDt flows from Grinex have been linked to licensed, Europe-focused cryptocurrency exchanges. Within the EU, exchanges have begun delisting USDt trading pairs to adjust to the bloc’s Markets in Crypto-Property (MiCA) regulatory framework, which imposes strict requirements on stablecoin issuers.