U.S. authorities have imposed sanctions on Grinex — the successor to the Garantex cryptocurrency exchange, which had previously come under sanctions and was allegedly linked to darknet marketplaces and helped criminals launder money.
In the spring of this year, researchers at TRM Labs reported that Grinex is closely linked to Garantex’s previous activities, although their report did not include any factual evidence that the exchange was used for illicit transactions.
Grinex began actively promoting itself in Telegram channels associated with Garantex shortly after U.S. authorities seized the Garantex domains in March 2025.
“A few days after Garantex was shut down, Telegram channels associated with the exchange began promoting Grinex — a platform with an almost identical interface, registered in Kyrgyzstan in December 2024,” TRM Labs noted.
The fact is that back in 2022, U.S. authorities stated that they had managed to link Garantex transactions (totaling more than $100 million) to money laundering for cybercriminals, darknet marketplaces, and hackers, including the Conti ransomware group and the Hydra marketplace. At that time, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the exchange.
In addition, in the spring of this year, two Garantex administrators — Aleksandr Mira Serda and Lithuanian citizen Aleksej Besciokov — were charged. Just a few days later, Besciokov was arrested in India, where he was on vacation.
As OFAC representatives now report, last week sanctions were extended against Garantex and its three co-founders — Sergey Mendeleev, the previously mentioned Aleksandr Mira Serda, and Pavel Karavatsky. Sanctions were also imposed on Grinex and six exchange-related companies in Russia and Kyrgyzstan, including InDeFi Bank, Exved, Old Vector, A7, A71, and A7 Agent.
“Immediately after the law enforcement actions of March 6, 2025, carried out under the direction of the U.S. Secret Service, the leadership of Garantex created infrastructure to continue providing key services, in particular to transfer Garantex customer deposits to Grinex,” the official OFAC statement reads. “Grinex’s promotional materials state that the exchange was created in response to the sanctions and asset freezes that affected Garantex. Since its inception, Grinex has processed billions of dollars in cryptocurrency transactions.”
Following the publication of this statement, the U.S. Department of State separately announced a reward of up to $6 million for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of Garantex executives.
According to the U.S. Department of State, from April 2019 through March 2025, Garantex processed over $96 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions.
“The use of cryptocurrency exchanges to launder money and facilitate ransomware attacks not only threatens our national security, but also undermines the reputation of legitimate virtual asset service providers,” commented John K. Hurley, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “By exposing these malicious actors, the Treasury Department continues to support the legitimate operations of the digital asset industry.”