Less than 0.5% of stablecoin transactions were linked to illicit activities in 2025, according to a recent report from blockchain analytics platform TRM Labs.
Illicit flows accounted for around 0.4% of overall activity, highlighting that stablecoin use remains extremely legitimate, TRM Labs analysis showed.
TRM said 2025 was the first year stablecoin activity exceeded $1 trillion in monthly trading volume several times over, with sustained throughput rather than short-lived speculative spikes.
In 2024, stablecoin transaction volume saw unprecedented growth, with total on-chain transfer volume exceeding $27.5 trillion, and in 2025, it increased by almost 20% to at least $35 trillion.
Illicit activities have followed a similar trajectory in terms of concentration and scale. In 2025, illicit entities received $141 billion in stablecoins, the highest level seen in five years, of which $72 billion was tied to the A7A5 token, a ruble-pegged stablecoin operating within sanctions-linked networks.
Oleg Ogienko, director of regulatory and foreign affairs at A7A5, told CoinDesk that “TRM Labs tries to label any Russian foreign trade as illicit or illegal. But that is of course a false statement.”
In separate comments during an interview at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, Ogienko was even more defiant, saying he was looking to debate anyone who accused him of breaking compliance laws through his stablecoin company.
“We fully respect the regulations of Kyrgyzstan. We do not do illegal things,” he said. “We have KYC procedures and AML mechanisms built into our infrastructure. We do not violate any of the Financial Action Task Force principles.”
However, Old Vector LLC and A7 LLC, the issuing entities and affiliates of A7A5, and Promsvyazbank (PSB), the bank that holds the reserves, are sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, prohibiting the US dollar-denominated financial world from interacting with them.
The TRM Labs report states that stablecoins accounted for 86% of all illicit crypto flows in 2025, highlighting how dominant they have become in high-risk ecosystems. Sanctions-linked networks have consolidated significantly in 2025, with the A7 ecosystem alone linked to at least $83 billion in direct volume. These networks increasingly resemble parallel cross-border financial systems rather than isolated actors.
In comparison, 2024 represented a scaling phase. Laundering infrastructure such as collateral services grew rapidly from 2022 to mid-2025, peaking above $17 billion per quarter, with approximately 99% of the volume denominated in stablecoins. But the institutionalization and centralization observed in 2025, notably via the A7 and front-company exchanges, had not yet reached the same extent.
