According to Cointelegraph, Global Ledger found that the active reserves of the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex exceed $15 million, some of which are being transferred. The report states that a dormant Garantex Ethereum wallet has started accumulating ETH and transferred $2.3 million worth of ETH to Tornado Cash. The wallet still holds $6.1 million worth of ETH.
A similar pattern has emerged in Bitcoin holdings, with approximately 2.2 BTC being bridged to the TRON network, and then part of it transferred to Grinex. Lex Fisun, co-founder and CEO of Global Ledger, stated that this indicates a failure in the enforcement of sanctions.
On March 6, Tether froze $27 million of USDT on Garantex, leading to the suspension of operations at the exchange. In April 2022, the U.S. Treasury first imposed sanctions on Garantex, and the European Union is set to follow up on February 24, 2025.
On March 12, Garantex founder Aleksej Bešciokov was arrested while on vacation in India and may be extradited to the U.S. facing multiple conspiracy charges. Osman Kabaloev, an official from the Russian Ministry of Finance, stated that the country should develop its own stablecoin and plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange.
