Pierluigi Paganini
March 07, 2025
An international law enforcement operation led by U.S. Secret Service seized the website (“garantex[.]org”) of the sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex.
In April 2022, the US Treasury Department sanctioned the virtual currency exchange. Garantex has been active since 2019, the service allowed customers to buy and sell virtual currencies using fiat currencies. Most of Garantex’s operations are carried out in Moscow, including at Federation Tower, and St. Petersburg, Russia, where other sanctioned virtual currency exchanges have also operated.
The analysis of the transactions conducted through Garantex revealed that over $100 million in transactions were associated with illicit activities, including darknet markets. Nearly $6 million are associated with operations of the RaaS gang Conti and approximately $2.6 million from Hydra Market.
At the time, Garantex was the third virtual currency exchange to be blocklisted by the U.S. after SUEX and CHATEX.
“The domain for Garantex has been seized by the United States Secret Service pursuant to a seizure warrant obtained by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia under the authority of 18 U.S.C. §§ 981 and 982,” reads a banner published on the seized website by the authorities.
The operation involved the U.S. DOJ, FBI, Europol, and law enforcement from Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Estonia.
Below is the message published by the Russian exchange on Telegram:
“Dear users!
We have bad news.
Tether has declared war on the Russian crypto market and has blocked our wallets containing over 2.5 billion rubles.
We are temporarily suspending all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, while our team works to resolve this issue.
We are fighting and will not give up!
Please note that all USDT held in Russian wallets is now at risk.
As always, we are the first, but not the last.
The Garantex Team“
In February, the EU announced sanctions on Garantex for ties to sanctioned Russian banks (Sberbank, T-Bank, and Alfa-Bank), leading Tether to block its wallets.
“For the first time, the Council also decided to sanction, a crypto-currency exchange based in Russia, Garantex, which is closely associated with EU-sanctioned Russian banks.” read the press release published by the Council of the EU.
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