UK sanctions Huobi & A7 network over $90B Russia evasion!

Britain has applied banking-grade sanctions to crypto exchanges for the first time, designating 18 entities including Huobi (HTX) and the A7 network under Regulation 17A of its Russia sanctions regime — a legal tool previously reserved exclusively for sanctioned banks. The move requires all UK financial firms to freeze funds and sever correspondent relationships with the named entities, signaling that regulators now treat parts of the crypto industry as formal financial infrastructure.

At the center of the action is A7, a Kremlin-backed network founded in October 2024 and majority-owned by Ilan Shor, an Israeli-Moldovan oligarch convicted for the theft of $1 billion from Moldovan banks who later received Russian citizenship. The minority stake belongs to Promsvyazbank, a Russian state bank already sanctioned for financing Moscow's military-industrial complex.