Tether has frozen $27 million in USDT on the Russian exchange Garantex.
Tether has frozen $27 million in USDt on the sanctioned Russian cryptocurrency exchange, Garantex, forcing the platform to temporarily halt its services, including withdrawals. The move has significant implications for the Russian crypto market and highlights the ongoing tensions between Western financial regulators and the crypto industry in Russia. This action follows a previous sanction imposed by the European Union in February, targeting Garantex due to its association with sanctioned Russian banks.
The freeze represents the first time a cryptocurrency exchange based in Russia has been sanctioned by a governing body. The European Union’s decision came three years after the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The sanction specifically targeted Garantex, emphasizing the growing international efforts to regulate and restrict cryptocurrency activities linked to Russia. Following the EU’s action, Garantex announced it had suspended all services, citing the asset freeze and attributing it to “under maintenance” on its website.
Prior to this latest development, Garantex had experienced a dramatic surge in trading volumes, according to data from CoinPaprika. The exchange’s daily trading volumes increased by over 1,000% between March 1, 2022, and March 1, 2025, scaling from approximately $11 million to $121.6 million. This growth underscores the increasing reliance on Garantex as a platform for cryptocurrency trading within Russia, despite international sanctions. While significantly smaller than major global exchanges like Binance, which processes $23 billion daily, Garantex’s trading activity represents a substantial portion of the Russian crypto market.
The freeze of USDt on Garantex is not a watershed event for the broader cryptocurrency market, however, it demonstrates the escalating pressure exerted by Western nations on the Russian crypto industry. Local lawmakers, including Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the Russian parliament’s committee on information policy, have pointed to the action as a harbinger of further interventions. Gorelkin stated that the freeze “is surely not the last case when Western countries put pressure” on crypto businesses. He concluded that “it is impossible to completely block this market for Russia.”
Garantex’s founder, Sergey Mendeleev, who reportedly stepped back from the exchange in 2020, emphasized the importance of self-custody – managing cryptocurrency keys outside of centralized exchanges. Mendeleev highlighted the need for users to understand the difference between tokens susceptible to blocking through smart contracts and those that are inherently non-blockable. “I can only hope that this story will move the process of understanding that ‘not your keys — not your money,’ and will finally teach the user to distinguish tokens that can be blocked at smart contract level from non-blockable ones.”
Tether has not responded to a direct request for comment regarding the USDt freeze on Garantex. The situation reflects the broader challenges and complexities faced by the cryptocurrency industry within Russia, navigating international sanctions and regulatory scrutiny.
