On July 23, the EU Council adopted its 21st Russia sanctions package. It designates 14 VASPs across six jurisdictions and, for the first time, gives the EU authority to ban dealings with an entire country's crypto sector if it's found to be facilitating Russian sanctions evasion.
At the same time, networks like the Kremlin-backed A7 settlement system are demonstrating how sanctioned actors are using crypto, and specifically stablecoins, to keep money moving at scale.
David Carlisle, Elliptic's VP of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, breaks down what's changed, what it means for your compliance obligations, and where enforcement is heading next.
In this session, you'll learn:
- What the 21st sanctions package actually changes, and why the new third-country authority is a bigger deal than the VASP designations themselves
- How the A7 network has moved more than $90 billion using crypto rails, and what its ruble-backed stablecoin reveals about the next phase of sanctions evasion
- What compliance and sanctions teams at financial institutions, crypto businesses, and government agencies should be doing differently starting now
