The Russia-based crypto exchange Garantex announced a temporary halt in its operations due to the freezing of crypto wallets.

In a written statement from Garantex, sanctioned by the European Union, it was reported that around $28 million worth of crypto wallets on the platform were frozen by Tether. The statement referred to Tether as “declaring war” on the Russian crypto market, saying, “We have bad news. While we work on resolving this issue, we are temporarily suspending all services, including crypto withdrawal operations.” The EU included Garantex in the 16th round of sanctions in 2025 due to its close ties with Russian banks subject to sanctions.

On March 6, 2025, Garantex announced that the digital wallets on the Tether platform were frozen, forcing them to halt operations. Digital assets and cryptocurrencies are becoming more widespread due to Russian banks being removed from the SWIFT payment system. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov stated in December 2024 that Russian companies had started using Bitcoin and other digital assets in international payments.