Kyrgyz Crypto Rails Get the Cold Shoulder as UK Sanctions $90B A7 Pipeline 🇬🇧

The United Kingdom sanctioned three cryptocurrency exchanges, two payment platforms and one individual on October 8 over suspected links to Russian sanctions evasion, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced. The designations target Xeltox Enterprises, TokenSpot, Processing KG and Tsunami Payments, along with Processing KG director Ulan Bukabaev, on accusations that the platforms help Moscow move money through the Kremlin-backed A7 financial network.

Xeltox Enterprises, a Vancouver-registered company, was designated through its ownership of crypto services Cryptomus and Heleket. Kyrgyz firms TokenSpot and Tsunami Payments, which share an office tower in Bishkek, were also named, as was Processing KG, the operator of payment service VexPay. The UK Foreign Office said two of the targets processed and facilitated transactions with the A7 network without specifying which.

UK authorities described A7 as a Kremlin-backed "illicit finance network" used to circumvent restrictions on Russia's financial sector. The government said the network claimed to have moved more than $90 billion in 2025, roughly half of Russia's annual military spending. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis found that Cryptomus and Heleket received funds from thousands of illicit counterparties, peaking at 900 entities within a single month in late 2025. Chainalysis separately determined that TokenSpot, along with Grinex and Meer, received over $308 million from the same HTX deposit address.

Beyond asset freezes, the four companies face internet services sanctions requiring social media platforms, internet providers and app stores to take reasonable steps to stop UK users from accessing their sites and apps. The FCDO posted on X: "Putin's war depends on money, oil revenues and the networks that help sustain them. Today, the UK is imposing 38 new sanctions to disrupt those networks. The message is simple: if you help Russia fund or equip this war, you will face the consequences."

The crypto designations form part of a broader 38-target package that also includes Russian oil firms Zarubezhneft and INK Capital, bringing UK sanctions to cover more than 90% of Russia's oil production capacity. The package adds 12 shadow fleet tankers, bringing the number sanctioned to more than 600, and 17 entities and individuals involved in supplying goods critical to Russia's missile and drone production. In May, UK authorities sanctioned HTX, the exchange operated by Justin Sun, and other crypto firms, accusing HTX of providing financial services to A7; HTX has argued the designation applies only to Huobi Global as a separate legal entity and said its online exchange and user funds remain unaffected.