UK targets $86bn Russia-linked A7 crypto pipeline

On Aug. 31 the National Crime Agency issued a nationwide industry alert directing banks, payment providers and crypto firms to trace A7 payment routes and to scrutinize intermediary wallets and cross-border infrastructure linked to Russia-related transactions.

The alert targets the A7 cross-border settlement network. UK authorities say A7 has used financial institutions in third countries, SWIFT and other payment rails to move funds for Russian clients. A7 reported processing more than $86 billion in its first year; UK officials say that tally is self-reported and not a verified measure of illicit flows.

The guidance asks firms to go beyond name screening and follow the pathways between senders and sanctioned endpoints. It highlights indicators that should prompt extra checks, including intermediary wallets and transaction hashes, decentralized exchanges and mixers, over-the-counter and peer-to-peer routes, services without know-your-customer controls, chain-hopping, VPN use and frequent changes to infrastructure.

The government proposed increasing the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation’s maximum civil penalty for breaches involving measurable funds or economic resources. The ceiling would rise from the current greater of £1 million or 50% of breach value to the greater of £2 million or 100% of breach value. The change requires primary legislation, has no effective date and would leave OFSI discretion to set penalties below the statutory maximum.

UK authorities have previously described shifts in crypto liquidity linked to sanctions exposure. They assessed that liquidity moved from the exchange Garantex to a Kyrgyzstan-registered project called Grinex through a route labelled A7A5. By May 2025 Grinex recorded more than $1.2 billion in incoming and outgoing USDT transaction volume. The US Treasury stated that Garantex employees helped create Grinex infrastructure and that users regained account access or received equivalent value through the A7A5 channel.

Regulators noted that sanctioned activity can persist after an exchange, wallet or payment service changes name, jurisdiction or technical rails. They called on private-sector firms to monitor chains of transactions and the infrastructure that carries them as activity moves across wallets, centralized and decentralized exchanges, stablecoins and third-country payment systems.

Rachael Herbert, director of the National Economic Crime Centre at the National Crime Agency, commented: “The National Crime Agency and the National Economic Crime Centre are committed to targeting the nexus between organized crime and sanctions evasion. Last year, our Operation Destabilize targeted and disrupted a major Russian-speaking professional money laundering network, making it harder for them to operate and degrading the threat they posed.”

The alert was issued on Aug. 31 and the penalty proposal was published alongside the notice.