USA seizes domains of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, freezes $26 mln
The United States Department of Justice, acting in coordination with Germany and Finland, has disrupted and taken down the online infrastructure used by the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex suspected of violating sanctions and facilitating money laundering by transnational criminal organizations, the department said in a statement.
Garantex reported on Thursday that stablecoin operator Tether, which controls the USDT coin pegged to the U.S. dollar, blocked its digital wallets holding more than 2.5 billion rubles. This forced the exchange to suspend all of its services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals. Garantex's website later displayed a parked page saying that it was seized by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS).
The U.S. Department of Justice said in its statement that U.S. law enforcement, led by the USSS, executed a seizure order against three website domain names used to support Garantex's operations (Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy), while German and Finnish law enforcement seized servers hosting Garantex's operations.
The United States said it previously obtained copies of Garantex's servers, including customer and accounting databases. U.S. law enforcement has also frozen over $26 million in funds used to facilitate Garantex's money laundering activities, it said.
According to U.S. court filings, between 2019 and 2025, Garantex was controlled and operated by Aleksej Besciokov, a citizen of Lithuania residing in Russia, and Aleksandr Mira Serda, a Russian citizen residing in the United Arab Emirates. The United States has charged the two with money laundering conspiracy.
Garantex has been under U.S. sanctions on suspicion of money laundering since April 2022. The EU imposed its sanctions on the cryptocurrency exchange in February 2025.