Garantex Team Statement:
Source – https://t.me/Garantex_Announcements/342

We have bad news. Tether has declared war on the Russian crypto market and frozen our wallets with over 2.5 billion rubles worth of USDT. We are temporarily suspending all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, while our team works to resolve the issue. We are fighting and we will not give up!

Please note that all USDT held in Russian wallets is now under threat. As always – we are the first, but we won’t be the last.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Garantex in the spring of 2022. The sanctions targeted the legal entity Garantex Europe OU, which was registered in Estonia. Subsequently, its license was revoked. Notably, at the time, news coverage grouped Garantex with darknet market Hydra. Back then, the market reacted weakly, as it was one of the first such precedents.

Over time, the sanctions began to take effect, and regular traders started to feel the impact—accounts were frozen on major exchanges like Binance, OKX, and others. Although the Garantex team managed to adapt, operations became increasingly difficult. About a year after the sanctions were imposed, rumors began circulating in thematic chats and forums about wallet freezes allegedly by Tether. There was no confirmed link to Garantex at the time, but it was a clear signal that sanctions would not go unnoticed and more serious consequences were likely.

In late February, the EU also imposed its own sanctions on Garantex. The company responded:

Source – https://t.me/Garantex_Announcements/340

Dear users,

Today, the EU imposed sanctions on the Garantex crypto exchange “for ties to Russian banks.”
Since these are not the first sanctions against Garantex for involvement in the Russian financial infrastructure, nothing changes for our users.

All services remain available and will continue to be available.

– The Garantex Team

It was previously reported that the U.S. and the U.K. are investigating USDT transfers through the Russian-based Garantex exchange.

This recent development will undoubtedly have a strong impact on the market, as Garantex was one of the largest platforms in Russia. However, after the first round of sanctions, major teams and projects started focusing more heavily on AML practices. Today, they face significantly lower risks of being added to sanctions lists or having their USDT frozen by Tether.

It is expected that the market will adapt and that stronger players will emerge—those offering professional AML/KYC/KYT solutions, making them more competitive than Garantex