A stablecoin that most people have never heard of has quietly become one of the largest non-dollar stablecoins in the world. A7A5, a ruble-pegged token issued by a Kyrgyz company called Old Vector, has arranged between $70 billion and $100 billion in online capital since its launch in January 2025.
A7A5 is backed by ruble deposits held at Promsvyazbank, a Russian bank that has been under Western control for decades. The token is issued by Old Vector, which operates under Kyrgyzstan’s digital economy policy, and provides it with an administrative house located outside the US and the EU.
The token works on Tron and Ethereum. Its market cap is over $500 million, making it the 21st-largest stablecoin in the world.
The A7A5 makes up about 15% of Russia’s cross-border exports. It is said to be the first currency to pay for some Russian currency, which facilitates trade with China, Southeast Asian countries, and Iran. Most of the trading volume flows through Grinex, the exchange purpose of which is created on this platform.
The US and the EU have imposed sanctions on A7A5 and organizations related to its work, leading to its removal from major platforms and restrictions on access to international exchanges such as Uniswap. And yet the sign still works. A7A5 surpassed $100 billion in online sales within its first year.
Kyrgyzstan has its own digital infrastructure, and Old Vector works within it. Western rulers can sanction the institutions involved, but they cannot force a sovereign state to stop state-run business.
If the ruble-based stablecoin can reach $70 billion to $100 billion in sales in its first year, the A7A5 model – offering a stablecoin through a peer-to-peer system, backing it up with domestic bank deposits, and running it on permissionless blockchains – will be replaced by another permissioned economy.
