Global Ledger this week flagged a fresh threat to international asset controls. The blockchain forensic firm traced more than fifteen million dollars in active reserves, some beyond the reach of Tether, that the sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex still commands despite headline freezes.
Tether, backed by the US, Germany, and Finland, froze $26 million in USDT on March 3. The operation targeted wallets on Ethereum and TRON. Garantex boasted about the hit and halted trading for customers in response. The matter seemed closed.
Investigators soon tracked hidden reservoirs. On March 6, a dormant Ethereum wallet linked to Garantex received 3,265 ethers worth approximately $8.6 million. The wallet then seemed to have leaked funds.
From May 22 until early June, operators drained 845 ether through Tornado Cash, the privacy mixer that eliminates transaction trails. On June 4 alone, they moved 30 ether.
Tether restrictions easily Circumvented
The same wallet still holds over two thousand three hundred ether, approximately six point one million dollars, and is still active. Bitcoin tells a similar story. Several historical Garantex addresses aggregated to attract 19.39 bitcoin on March 6.
Balances are now thirty bitcoin, or roughly three point one million dollars. On May 8, traders switched networks, transferring 2.2 bitcoin to TRON and sending part of that bounty to Grinex, a connected trading platform.
The BNB Chain segment shows patience in strategy. Garantex deposited around four million in pegged tokens on March 6 and hasn’t moved them since. Tether cannot freeze assets there, and the chain has no blocking events recorded. The idle stash is still ready for any future moves.
Multi-chain moves outpace regulation
Global Ledger emphasizes that the fifteen million dollars traced is distinct from the USDT that was frozen. According to the firm, multi-chain architectures permit sanctioned entities to bypass actions with a single token. Other stablecoins, including USDC, DAI, and ruble-pegged A7A5, are used alongside native cryptocurrencies in an expansive arsenal. Every bridge and mixer operation adds complexity to monitoring.
Regulators are in a race now. Exchanges proliferate across new networks at warp speed compared to regulators who can only adjust their playbook slowly. Without additional insight into cross-chain routes, freezes are not effective at all. The Guarantee saga illustrates the point very clearly. Authorities targeted once but not twice with new flows.
Banks and compliance desks indeed study data now. They change rules that score wallet risk literally in real time. Insurers update policies since mixers can obscure illegal flows. On-chain filters are also proposed by developers to block bad addresses upfront.
