A7A5 challenges dollar-pegged USDT in Russia’s stablecoin market

Non-dollar stablecoins like A7A5 and EURC are challenging Greenback-tied digital currencies like USDT and USDC in the digital-asset market in Russia and beyond.

The finding comes from a new study, which also examines how residents of Russia and other Russian-speaking countries are using cryptocurrencies.

Sanctioned Russian crypto viewed as main alternative to Tether

The ruble-pegged A7A5 has become a popular choice for many Russians who prefer to use it instead of dollar-backed stablecoins.

Some 53.7% of the 1,000 respondents in the survey have named it as the primary alternative to Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USD Coin (USDC).

The research was carried out by the sectioned stablecoin project, which released the data in a report titled “Russia’s Cryptocurrency Market.”

According to the authors, A7A5’s share of the non-dollar stablecoin market is around 41% in 2026, or approximately $550 million.

Its closest competitor, EURC, accounts for about 32%. The coin is pegged 1:1 to the common European currency and also issued by Circle.

The Russia-linked A7A5 is issued by a Kyrgyzstan-registered platform called Old Vector and backed by ruble deposits at the Russian PSB Bank.

The latter is one of the organizations behind A7, a Russian payments company. A7 is majority-owned by the Moldovan oligarch with a Russian passport, Ilan Shor.

A7 is believed to have created the cryptocurrency, which has admittedly processed well over $100 billion in transactions since its launch in early 2025.

Entities associated with the stablecoin, such as the Kyrgyz-based exchange Grinex, have been targeted in Western sanctions for bypassing financial restrictions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.

Grinex is the successor of Garantex, which was shut down in a U.S.-led operation in March last year, when Tether froze $27 million worth of USDT on the crypto trading platform.

Russian citizens and businesses have been looking for alternative cryptocurrencies and payment methods to continue to engage in cross-border trade despite the measures against Moscow.

Over half of Russians use cryptocurrencies for business

More than half of the surveyed (57.4%) have indicated they are using digital assets in business activities. The great majority, 96.3%, utilizes them to store value among other practical applications.

Over half the respondents, almost 56%, store their crypto funds in non-custodial wallets. Another 38.6% prefer the services of centralized exchanges.

Well over two-thirds of the polled declare they have held cryptocurrency for more than three years, despite market ups and downs, the results quoted by RIA Novosti, RBC and the business daily Vedomosti showed.

Investment remains the most popular use case for 25.5%, while 19.9% employ crypto to save money. 26.5%, are engaged in trading and 17.3% spend coins in international payments. The researchers highlighted:

“Cryptocurrency accounts for a significant share of portfolios: 56.7% hold more than 30% of their assets in it, and 22.7% hold between 75% and 100%.”

Bitcoin (BTC) is considered the most profitable crypto by over a quarter of the participants in the study (25.6%), followed by altcoins (21.1%). Tether comes in third (16.4%).

The survey is focused on active participants in the Russian-speaking segment of the market from Russia itself, the region, and beyond, the organizers said.

Their average age is 36.3 years. The majority are men with higher education (73.4%) and average or above-average income (76.3%).

Russia’s crypto market is quite concentrated in major cities such as the capital Moscow and its adjacent Moscow Oblast (37.9% of the polled), and St. Petersburg (10.7%), with the rest split among several regions.

A little over 9% of respondents are based abroad, including 1.8% in neighboring Belarus and 1% in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A smaller percentage reside in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Kazakhstan (0.8% each) as well as in Thailand and Turkey (0.5%, respectively).