Holders of A7A5, a stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble and designed to bypass Western sanctions, have been waiting for overdue interest payments since October 9. The disruption comes amid a sharp decline in daily A7A5 transfers, now down to around 61 across the Tron and Ethereum blockchains.
Yandex data centers hit by Ukrainian drone strikes
In the early hours of October 8, Ukrainian drones set fire to a Yandex data center located in Sasovo, within Russia’s Ryazan region. Yandex, one of Russia’s largest technology companies known for its search engine and cloud services, subsequently suspended operations at the affected site.
Users reported over 1,300 issues across Yandex Cloud, Documents, and Tables platforms via Downdetector, a service tracking outages. These incidents contributed to a decline in Yandex shares, which fell 3.4% on the Moscow Exchange.
This was the first confirmed strike on a Russian data center since the beginning of the 2022 conflict. During the same period, Russian forces have reportedly targeted at least eight major data centers in Kyiv since late September.
A second Yandex data center faced a similar attack within the same week, intensifying the impact on Russian infrastructure.
A7A5 operations stall, transaction numbers plummet
The A7A5 stablecoin operates on both the Tron and Ethereum networks. Although the token itself does not directly depend on these data centers, the exchange services facilitating A7A5 activity do. Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist at blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, commented that activity fell “not because” A7A5 requires the affected facilities, but because its associated exchange does.
Etherscan data indicates that about 17,600 wallets hold A7A5 on Ethereum, where only 23 transfers were recorded over a 24-hour period. On Tron, 38 transfers took place among over 30,700 holders. Before the drone strikes, daily A7A5 transactions averaged 600. Robinson noted that current activity mainly consists of swaps through decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap.
Uniswap removed A7A5 from its website in November 2025, although its smart contracts still support the token. CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap value A7A5’s market capitalization between $455 million and $483 million, while daily trading volume has dropped as low as zero and rarely exceeds $1,500.
| Network | Holders | Daily Transfers |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | 17,600 | 23 |
| Tron | 30,700 | 38 |
Interest suspended, liquidity and support dwindle
A7A5 users reported that interest payments ceased on October 9. The company behind A7A5 promised to pay interest for all missed days. However, users seeking to obtain promissory notes for completed orders were advised by A7A5 that these could only be redeemed in person for rubles at the A7-Finance office. The support bot is also offline, leaving users with just a phone contact.
Promissory notes “can only be redeemed for rubles at the A7-Finance office,” company representatives told users.
A7A5’s Telegram channels first cited scheduled technical work on October 8, then blamed technical problems a day later for the disruptions. On October 14, the company indicated it expected to resume operations soon.
Sanctions drive platforms to Russian hosting
A7A5’s core function is to facilitate conversion of rubles to Tether’s USDT, according to Elliptic’s Tom Robinson. The main A7A5 exchange platform has been hosted by Yandex since September 2025. Prior to that, the service operated from Europe. Coordinated US, UK, and EU sanctions in August 2025 reportedly influenced A7A5’s migration to Russian hosting.
A7, the Russian company leading the project, also launched a service in October allowing businesses to send payments in USDT, which are delivered to suppliers via standard SWIFT transfers. This service uses A7-branded USDT to supply liquidity for A7A5.
A7A5 was developed by A7 and issued by Old Vector, a company registered in Kyrgyzstan. Deposits at Promsvyazbank, a Russian state bank subject to sanctions, reportedly back the stablecoin.
Average daily trading volume for A7A5 fell to $24.3 million in June 2026, representing a 96% decline from its July 2025 high, following the imposition of sanctions by the US, UK, and EU.
The EU’s twentieth sanctions package, introduced in April, included a Kyrgyz exchange that listed A7A5 among its targets. In June, Russian authorities sanctioned British researcher Alexander Browder after his A7A5-focused research contributed to UK sanctions policies.
Mini dictionary: A7A5 – A stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble, created to provide cross-border payment solutions circumventing Western sanctions and backed by deposits at a sanctioned Russian bank.
