Strike on Grinex worth $5 billion: how mass blocking of USDT wallets hit the crypto exchange and related platforms, paralyzing sanction-evasion schemes
Around $5 billion was blocked at the same time on crypto wallets belonging to "platforms" and individuals connected to financial transactions bypassing sanctions. These included funds from the crypto exchange Grinex, as well as businessmen from the UAE and China.
According to a source, the most widespread "strike" (we’re talking exclusively about wallets for USDT) took place in the night of April 16. In the morning, wallet owners saw a freeze notice appear (see photo). Moreover, these wallets weren’t on any sanctions lists. There’s also still no official information about which country’s demand this was carried out under.
Presumably, the U.S. Among those who got caught in the "crossfire" were the crypto exchange Grinex, related platforms and individuals, as well as people who were "identified" as involved in financial transactions bypassing sanctions. Grinex just happened to shut down operations on April 16 and still isn’t processing any payouts to its clients—they have no access to their funds.
According to the source, for example, several businessmen from the UAE had $180 million blocked on their wallets. And a group of businessmen from China had several hundred million dollars frozen. That said, most of these were owners of wallets with Russian "roots." In total, by sources’ estimates, about $5 billion was frozen in this way. There’s no chance whatsoever of unfreezing these funds, even in the distant future.
Some wallet owners are now hiring major international law firms. But everyone’s trying to keep this story especially quiet to avoid reputational damage. Interlocutors say that because of this massive "freeze" of funds, payments bypassing sanctions ground to a halt for a while. But about a week later, the system was able to resume using other platforms, whose service fees rose by 3-5%.
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