In March 2022, the Russian-controlled Estonian Garantex Europe OÜ had to surrender its crypto license. According to FIU findings, this crypto payment provider processed more than €5 billion annually, primarily for merchants from Russia and other high-risk countries. In April 2022, the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned Garantex for ransomware activities for Russian gangs and added it to the OFAC‘s SDN list. However, in our 28 July 2022 review, the crypto exchange worked “normally” and still does most of its business in Russia and Belarus.
Key Data
| Trading name | Garantex |
| Business activity | Crypto exchange |
| Domain | https://garantex.io |
| Legal entity | Kihonzi Buzhaga OÜ |
| Related individuals | Raul Pint (nominee director) Pier Kampor, Russia (LinkedIn) Evgenia Burova, Russia (LinkedIn) Vladimir Yelenskiy, Russia (LinkedIn) Vladislav Rychagov, Russia (LinkedIn) |
| Jurisdictions | Estonia, Russia |
| Regulator | FIU Estonia |
| License status | surrendered in March 2022 |
U.S. Sanctions Against Garantex
According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, an analysis of Garantex transactions exposed more than $100 million in transactions are associated with illicit actors and darknet markets, including nearly $6 million from the Russian Ransomware-as-a-Software (RaaS) gangs Conti and also including approximately $2.6 million from the Russian darknet marketplace Hydra.
Read our initial report on Garantex here.
Still The Old Operator
The Terms and Conditions of Garantex as of 1 June 2022 still state Garantex Europe OÜ as the operator and Estonia as the applicable jurisdiction. In fact, the crypto company’s offices are likely to be in Russia. Garantex claims to be the only exchange with no fee for depositing or withdrawing cash rubles. They allegedly operate in all major cities of Russia. BTC, USDT, and RUB are available for exchange.
Deposits in FIAT (USD, EUR, RUB) are only possible indirectly via other crypto exchanges like Binance or the P2P marketplace of Garantex where you can trade codes for top-up and withdrawal with other participants and also pay via bank or e-wallets like AdvCash.
The Growing Russian Business
Kihonzi Buzhage OÜ (prev. Garantex Europe OÜ) is doing business as Garantex (https://garantex.io). The Estonian entity was authorized to provide virtual currency services between 27 November 2020 and 24 February 2022. On its website, it presented Russian phone numbers for contact purposes.
Garantex continues to be a very busy crypto exchange with impressive growth rates. Similarweb lists it at #89.421 in Global Rank (28 July 2022), and in Russia, it is #6,854. More than 65% of the website’s visitors come from sanctioned Russia and Belarus.
Since the withdrawal of the Estonian license in March 2022, the number of monthly visitors had increased by more than 35% to almost 666,000 in May but fell to 469.400 in June, the level before Garantex renounced its license. Thus, the withdrawal of the license has had no visible negative impact.
Share Information
If you have any information about Garantex, its operators, and partners, please let us know through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
