New EU Sanctions Make Crypto Harder for Russian Users

New European Union sanctions just made crypto harder to use for people in Russia. EU governments agreed the measures on Thursday. They target 11 crypto platforms.

Officials have not named the platforms. Most sit outside Russia. The package also hits 94 Russian banks and the Moscow Exchange. Bitcoin (BTC) and other coins stay legal.

Why the EU Keeps Targeting Russian Crypto

The EU has a problem. Every time it shuts one crypto platform, Russians open a new one.

So its tactics keep shifting. First it named one exchange. Then it banned Russia’s entire crypto sector. Now it targets platforms in other countries.

Take Garantex. The US sanctioned this Russian exchange in 2022. The EU followed in early 2025. In March 2025, police seized its website and froze over $26 million. Within days, its team relaunched it as a near-copy called Grinex.

That is why the EU banned the whole sector in May. The reason is scale. One ruble-linked coin, A7A5, moved over $100 billion in a single year, says analytics firm Elliptic.

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