HONG KONG — Oleg Ogienko, director for Regulatory and Overseas Affairs at ruble-denominated stablecoin issuer A7A5, has publicly defended his company's compliance stance while revealing an ambitious goal: to facilitate more than 20% of Russia's international trade settlements. Speaking at the Consensus Hong Kong conference, Ogienko stressed that A7A5 operates fully within the laws of Kyrgyzstan, where it is incorporated, and maintains robust KYC and AML procedures. "We are fully compliant with the regulations of Kyrgyzstan. We do not do illegal things," he stated.
However, a significant contradiction defines A7A5's operations. The company's issuing entities—Old Vector LLC and A7 LLC—and its reserve bank, Promsvyazbank (PSB), are all sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This bars the U.S. dollar-denominated financial world from interacting with them. Paradoxically, these sanctions have become a driving force behind the stablecoin's explosive growth. According to data from Artemis, A7A5 added nearly $90 billion in circulating supply last year, outpacing Tether's USDT ($49 billion growth) and Circle's USDC ($31 billion growth).
The stablecoin's primary use case is facilitating cross-border payments for Russian users and businesses facing banking restrictions due to sanctions. It provides a route into USDT liquidity via DeFi protocols without holding dollar stablecoins directly. Ogienko explained that primary demand comes from businesses in Asia, Africa, and South America that trade with Russian exporters and importers.
A major hurdle to further growth is limited liquidity on centralized exchanges, which avoid listing the token due to secondary sanction risks. Current DeFi liquidity pools allow swaps for USDT, but A7A5's own dashboard shows only around $50,000 available. Ogienko was in Hong Kong to meet with exchanges and other blockchains to build partnerships, noting A7A5 is already deployed on Tron and Ethereum and is considering expansion to other networks.
The company's sanctioned status creates tension even at international crypto conferences. While A7A5 was a sponsor at Token2049 in Singapore (organized by Hong Kong-registered BOB Group), references to the company were later scrubbed from sponsor lists after concerns emerged from other participants.
Despite these challenges, A7A5 cannot currently be used within Russia itself, as domestic stablecoin regulations are still being drafted. Ogienko described a consultative relationship with Russian authorities focused on blockchain regulation rather than direct government control. He emphasized the company's neutral, business-focused stance: "We're not politicians. We are traders. We are businessmen. We're open for business cooperation with any country."
