Rouble-backed A7A5 stablecoin turnover nears $140 billion from launch, says PSB head

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Turnover of the A7A5 rouble-denominated stablecoin has reached nearly $140 billion since it was created in February 2025, the chairman and CEO of Russia's PSB Bank, Pyotr Fradkov, said.

"This is a small piece of the global stablecoin market, but it is the largest non‑dollar stablecoin," Fradkov told the RBC news agency, adding that A7A5 was created as an element of the Russian defence bank's A7 settlement infrastructure.

"We have 15,000 regular customers who use A7 products. That's a lot, and these companies represent a wide range of sizes," said Fradkov, adding that the A7 platform currently processes up to 2,000 payments per day.

A7 previously reported that 90% are with Asian countries, where China predominates.

The A7 platform, which PSB created for conducting cross-border settlements, plans an extensive global expansion and is not concerned about Western sanctions, its CEO and co‑owner, Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, told Reuters in June 2026 in Saint Petersburg.

Last year, the U.S., the EU and Britain imposed sanctions on several companies that they said were behind the Kyrgyzstan-based stablecoin, which is backed by rouble deposits at PSB.

"It's not the fear of falling under sanctions that's scary; it's the fear that, having fallen under sanctions, you won't be able to implement your payment mechanism," said Fradkov.

The goal of the A7 platform was to create a local infrastructure capable of supporting international operations regardless of external restrictions, he added.

"The system is designed in such a way that, even after falling under sanctions — repeatedly, in various forms and types — the company continues to carry out payments for our clients," Fradkov was quoted as saying in the RBC interview.

"Our own infrastructure isn't just one bank, one route, or one country. It's a distributed network of settlement centres, partner financial institutions, trading and legal structures that operate within the framework of local legislation."

Fradkov said A7 is profitable, without giving any detail.

(Reporting by Reuters Moscow Bureau; Editing by Alexander Smith)