- Grinex shut shop last Wednesday after allegedly suffering a massive hack.
- The organisation suggested the attack was the work of 'foreign intelligence services.'
- It's the latest blow to a weakening economy, say experts.
A version of this story appeared in The Guidance newsletter on April 20. Sign up here.
Hey all, Liam here.
One of the largest crypto exchanges that handled Russia’s sanctioned stablecoin, A7A5, just shut up shop — poof — dishing another massive blow to the country’s weakening economy.
On Wednesday, Grinex announced on its Telegram channel that it would halt operations after allegedly suffering a cyberattack which robbed the platform of over 1 billion rubles, or $13 million.
The post’s authors claim the attack bears “signs of involvement by foreign intelligence services” due to “an unprecedented level of resources and technology available exclusively to agencies of hostile states.”
More importantly, the fall of Grinex, which facilitated nearly $100 billion in volume for A7A5 in 2025, is a serious setback to Russia’s sanctions-dodging infrastructure.
“Grinex going dark presents serious damage to that infrastructure, not just because of the hack itself, but because it removes the exchange Russian businesses relied on to convert rubles into usable international currency,” Nick Harris, CEO at crypto asset recovery firm CryptoCare, told DL News.
“The pressure on the Russian economy from sanctions just got a little harder to escape."
What is Grinex?
Grinex is the successor to Garantex, a previously sanctioned and shuttered crypto exchange.
The two platforms were spun up to provide a financial escape valve for the Russian economy, which has been under pressure from a slew of sanctions after President Vladimir Putin’s regime invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Grinex has also been critical for facilitating transactions denominated in A7A5. The stablecoin has provided a useful transaction mechanism for sanctioned firms to do business.
But in August 2025, US, European, and British authorities also sanctioned Grinex, along with the issuing company behind A7A5, Old Vector.
Western authorities at the time suggested that the exchange and stablecoin were set up as part of a “shadow financial system” designed to bypass the global banking network.
Two scenarios
US-led sanctions on Russia have dramatically slowed the economy, suggest experts.
Putin revealed that the country’s gross domestic product dropped by 1.8% in January and February, falling below his expectations. The dreary GDP figures are likely to remain unchanged for some time.
Local outlets report that Russia's seaborne oil exports, a major source of revenue for the country, may drop to their lowest levels since 2023 due to infrastructure damage, presumably incurred during the war.
Some European leaders, including Thomas Nilsson, the head of Sweden’s military intelligence and security service, suspect that these figures are actually much worse, given the current price of crude oil.
“The Russian economy can only enter one of two scenarios: long-term decline or shock. Either way, they will continue on a downslope to a financial disaster,” Nilsson told the Financial Times.
Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin correspondent. Contact him at liam@dlnews.com.
