Cryptocurrency exchange HTX has rejected UK claims that it aided Russia’s “illicit financial infrastructure” used to move funds and sustain the country’s war in Ukraine, saying it rejected a request to list the A7A5 ruble stablecoin.
“A7A5 was seeking to list its stablecoin. However, following our rigorous internal due diligence and compliance review processes, its request was explicitly rejected,” an HTX spokesperson told CoinDesk.
The issuer of the token, A7 LLC, is already sanctioned by many Western governments.
In a sanctions note issued on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not provide specific evidence of any cooperation with the HTX-A7A5. The ministry said it had “reasonable grounds to suspect” that HTX was assisting A7, which the UK says is “conducting business in a sector of strategic importance to the Government of Russia”.
“We approached all major CEXs several months ago to list A7A5, including HTX,” A7A5 executive Oleg Ogienko told CoinDesk, using crypto terminology for centralized exchanges. “But they all rejected our request almost immediately because they fear secondary sanctions.”
Ogienko said he is open to working with centralized exchanges and that HTX’s refusal to list the Russian stablecoin is “bad for them.”
“Now, we don’t need your listing, because our business model runs on DeFi infrastructure,” he told CoinDesk. “However, we are open to interaction with CEXs if they want to increase their actual trading 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 the A7A5 fully complies with Kyrgyz and Russian regulations and with the principles established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which addresses money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation around the world.
“We did not violate any legislation,” he said.
