Russian Crypto Exchange Garantex Halts Services As Tether Targets Sanctioned Wallets

Sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex is announcing the suspension of its operations after Tether blocked its platform’s wallets.

In a new Telegram announcement on Thursday, the Russian exchange says that Tether has blocked Garantex’s wallets, which contained over 2.5 billion rubles, about $28 million.

“Dear users! We have bad news. Tether has entered the war against the Russian crypto market and blocked our wallets worth more than 2.5 billion rubles.

We are temporarily suspending all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, while our entire team solves this problem.

We are fighting and will not give up! Please note that all USDT in Russian wallets is currently under threat. As always, we are the first but not the last. Garantex Team.”

The European Union (EU) included Garantex in Russian sanctions last month, accusing Garantex of guilt by association with Russian banks that allegedly helped the country evade EU sanctions.

This is not the first time Tether has actively worked with regulators to disrupt USDT in sanctioned wallets.

In September of last year, Tether announced that, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), it had seized over $6 million in wrongfully obtained crypto in Southeast Asia.

When Reuters asked for a comment, a Tether spokesperson requested that all questions be directed to the U.S. Secret Service.

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