Sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex is still moving millions in digital assets, despite the U.S.-led freeze on $26 million in Tether (USDT). A new investigation from blockchain analytics firm Global Ledger reveals that over $15 million remains in circulation across Ethereum, Bitcoin, and BNB Chain, much of it active and, in some cases, already laundered.
While the March enforcement action marked a significant step in sanctioning crypto-enabled financial crime, Garantex’s continued manoeuvres show that chain-hopping and non-US stablecoins present serious gaps in the global asset-freezing framework.
Post-Freeze Activity Raises Laundering Concerns
The joint enforcement action by the U.S., Germany, and Finland in early March aimed to halt Garantex’s operations by targeting its USDT holdings. However, shortly after Garantex acknowledged the freeze on March 6, one of its Ethereum wallets, dormant for months came back online.
Within days, the wallet began consolidating 3,265 ETH (worth approximately $8.6 million at the time), initiating a money-laundering trail. Between May 22 and June 4, it routed over 844 ETH (valued at $2.25 million) through Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based mixer notorious for obfuscating crypto transactions.
On May 30 alone, 206 ETH was laundered, followed by another 30 ETH on June 4. As of that date, the wallet still retained over 2,334 ETH, worth more than $6 million.
“These patterns strongly suggest an intentional money laundering effort to obscure links to Garantex,” Global Ledger stated. The analytics firm is still tracking live outflows from this reserve in real time.
Bitcoin and TRON: Fast, Cheap, and Under the Radar
Similar laundering strategies were observed with Garantex-linked Bitcoin wallets. In early March, 19.39 BTC (around $2 million) was consolidated from dormant addresses, later growing to over 30 BTC (~$3.17 million). By early May, part of this BTC was bridged to the TRON network, a strategic move, according to Global Ledger CEO Lex Fisun.
“TRON is cheap, liquid, and fast,” said Fisun. “If your end goal is to swap BTC into stablecoins, bridging to the chain that already dominates those flows is the path of least resistance.”
TRON’s appeal lies in near-zero gas fees and its dominance in stablecoin volume over $73.8 billion in USDT circulates on the network, compared to just $5 billion on BNB Chain.
Some of the bridged Bitcoin reportedly made its way to Grinex, a suspected successor to Garantex. Although unconfirmed officially, Global Ledger asserts that the timing and wallet activity point toward a strong link.
BNB Chain: The Blind Spot in Enforcement
While BNB Chain doesn’t support Tether and therefore wasn’t affected by the freeze, Global Ledger estimates Garantex still holds roughly $4 million in BNB-based assets. These funds stopped moving the same day the sanctions were announced (March 6), but were neither swapped nor burned.
This inactivity poses a unique challenge. “There’s no ‘big red button’ for enforcement on BNB Chain,” said Fisun, referring to Tether’s ability to freeze assets on supported chains. “Freezing funds on BNB requires off-chain actors and can take years, like it did with the PopcornSwap scam.”
BNB’s opacity and lack of a dominant dollar-pegged stablecoin make it less critical overall, but its presence in the laundering trail shows that sanctioned entities are diversifying their strategies.
Sanctions Evaded Through On-Chain Manoeuvres
Global Ledger’s analysis suggests that Garantex’s evasion tactics are not only sophisticated but increasingly difficult to counter using traditional enforcement tools. Moving assets between chains, mixing protocols like Tornado Cash, and routing through stablecoins not issued by U.S. companies, such as ruble-pegged tokens or tokens on less-regulated networks, all provide escape routes.
Fisun highlighted that even USDC, another major U.S.-regulated stablecoin, was partially used. Before the freeze, over 290,000 USDC was moved from blocked wallets to a top-10 exchange. Meanwhile, 73,283 USDC remains in addresses now marked for sanctions.
“Some amounts were small enough to fly under the radar,” Fisun noted, suggesting that enforcement often prioritises higher-value assets, inadvertently letting smaller transactions slip through.
A Growing Problem for Multi-Chain Sanctions Enforcement
The case of Garantex underscores a fundamental challenge in crypto regulation, the fragmented, multi-chain nature of modern digital finance. Token-level freezes, while effective on paper, fall short when actors swiftly bridge assets, obscure transactions, or exploit jurisdictions with laxer regulations.
With at least $15 million in crypto still outside U.S. control and possibly more hidden in untracked wallets, the Garantex case offers a warning: sanctions in the age of decentralised finance require a much broader, coordinated, and technically sophisticated approach.
