HONG KONG — Oleg Ogienko, A7A5’s director of regulatory and foreign affairs, is looking to debate anyone who accuses him of breaking compliance laws through his stablecoin company.
Speaking to CoinDesk at Consensus Hong Kong, the public face of ruble-denominated stablecoin issuer A7A5 – which grew faster last year than USDT or USDC – stressed that, like any stablecoin issuer, compliance with the laws of the place where it is incorporated is essential (in this case, Kyrgyzstan), and criminals are not welcome on the platform.
“We fully respect the regulations of Kyrgyzstan. We do not do illegal things,” he said, highlighting the issuer’s regular audits. “We have KYC procedures and AML mechanisms built into our infrastructure. We do not violate any of the Financial Action Task Force principles.”
But here’s the catch: A7A5’s issuing and affiliated entities, Old Vector LLC and A7 LLC, as well as the bank that holds the reserves, Promsvyazbank (PSB), are sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, banning the US dollar-denominated financial world from interacting with them.
So even though the company’s subsidiaries are restricted by the United States (whose laws support the majority of global trade), being used by Russian companies to avoid sanctions is not a crime in Kyrgyzstan (where A7A5 is based) or Russia.
A7A5 facilitates cross-border payments for Russian users facing banking restrictions, while also providing access to market-leading USDT liquidity through decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols without directly holding dollar stablecoins.
In fact, the restriction has become one of the drivers of the stablecoin’s surprising growth. It added nearly $90 billion to circulating supply last year, surpassing USDT, which added $49 billion, and Circle’s USDC, which added about $31 billion, according to Artemis data.
Go beyond sanctions
Ogienko admitted that life under sanctions puts pressure on people and limits access to some Western goods and services.
However, he argued that this has not stopped commercial activity or cross-border trade, describing the restrictions as an obstacle rather than an economic impasse and creating a market where the A7A5 is in demand.
Ogienko said the main demand for A7A5 comes from companies in Asia, Africa and South America that trade with Russian exporters and importers and need cross-border payment mechanisms.
Currently, liquidity is limited as centralized exchanges do not list the token due to the risk of secondary sanctions. There are DeFi liquidity pools where A7A5 can be exchanged for USDT, although A7A5’s own dashboard indicates that only around 50,000 USDT is available.
Ogienko says he was on the ground in Hong Kong trying to solve this problem, using the trip to Consensus to meet with exchanges and other blockchains – declining to name details – to establish partnerships.
“We have been deployed on Tron and Ethereum, and now we are considering deploying on other blockchains… we are here to cooperate with them,” he said.
Even if the company wasn’t a sponsor of Consensus, the presence of a U.S.-sanctioned entity at any conference could make organizers and sponsors nervous, even when its sponsorships are technically legal in some regions. This happened at Token2049 in Singapore – where A7A5 was a sponsor, organized by BOB Group, registered in Hong Kong – a jurisdiction without sanctions against Russia. BOB, however, later removed references to the A7A5 from the listings, after concerns emerged from other sponsors.
Still, sanctions and policies surrounding restrictions don’t hinder Ogienko’s ambition to grow his business.
“We believe that we can increase the trade volumes settled under the A7A5… we hope to be able to achieve more than 20 percent of Russia’s trade settlements with different countries under the A7A5,” he said.
However, A7A5 still cannot be used in Russia, as lawmakers are still drafting stablecoin regulations.
Ogienko said he was in contact with the country’s authorities, describing the relationship as consultative and focused on blockchain regulation and financial infrastructure rather than direct government control.
“We are not politicians. We are traders. We are businessmen,” he said, emphasizing neutrality. “We are open to business cooperation with any country.”
Read more: Most influential: Oleg Ogienko
