Crypto exchange HTX rejected U.K. claims it helped Russia’s “illicit financial infrastructure” used for moving funds and sustaining the country’s war in Ukraine, saying it refused a listing application from the A7A5 ruble stablecoin.
“A7A5 was trying to list their stablecoin. However, following our rigorous internal due diligence and compliance review processes, their application was explicitly rejected,” a spokesperson for HTX told CoinDesk.
The token’s issuer, A7 LLC, is already sanctioned by many Western governments.
In a sanctions note issued Tuesday, the Foreign Office didn’t provide specific evidence of any HTX-A7A5 cooperation. The ministry said it had “reasonable grounds to suspect” HTX was assisting A7, which the U.K. says is “carrying on business in a sector of strategic significance to the Government of Russia.”
“We approached all the leading CEXes several months ago in order to list A7A5, including HTX,” A7A5 executive Oleg Ogienko told CoinDesk, using crypto terminology for centralized exchanges. “But all of them rejected our application almost at once because they are scared of secondary sanctions.”
Ogienko said he’s open to working with centralized exchanges and HTX’s refusal to list the Russian stablecoin is “bad for them.”
“Now, we do not need their listing, because our business model runs on DeFi infrastructure,” he told CoinDesk. “Nevertheless, we are open for interaction with CEXes if they want to increase their real trade volume and attract good clients.”
In an interview with CoinDesk at the Consensus Hong Kong conference earlier this year, Ogienko said he attended to meet with projects and protocols to discuss cooperation and business development.
Ogienko said A7A5 is fully compliant with Kyrgyz and Russian regulations and the principles set out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which tackles money laundering and terrorist and proliferation financing worldwide.
“We do not violate any legislation,” he said.