HTX denies U.K. allegation it aided Russia, says it turned down A7A5 ruble stablecoin listing Crypto exchange HTX pushed back on U.K. claims that it helped build Russia’s “illicit financial infrastructure,” saying it in fact refused a listing application from the A7A5 ruble stablecoin after conducting what it called a rigorous compliance review. “A7A5 was trying to list their stablecoin. However, following our rigorous internal due diligence and compliance review processes, their application was explicitly rejected,” an HTX spokesperson told CoinDesk. The stablecoin’s issuer, A7 LLC, has already been sanctioned by multiple Western governments. In a sanctions note published Tuesday, the U.K. Foreign Office stopped short of presenting direct evidence of HTX–A7A5 cooperation, instead saying it had “reasonable grounds to suspect” the exchange was assisting A7—an entity the U.K. says operates in a sector of strategic significance to the Russian government. A7A5 executive Oleg Ogienko told CoinDesk that the project had approached “all the leading CEXes several months ago in order to list A7A5, including HTX,” but that those exchanges “rejected our application almost at once because they are scared of secondary sanctions.” Ogienko said HTX’s refusal is “bad for them,” but added A7A5 does not currently need CEX listings because its “business model runs on DeFi infrastructure.” He said he remains open to working with centralized exchanges if they want to boost trade volume and attract customers. Ogienko said he attended the Consensus Hong Kong conference earlier this year to meet projects and protocols about collaboration, and asserted that A7A5 complies with Kyrgyz and Russian regulations as well as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) principles. “We do not violate any legislation,” he told CoinDesk. The dispute highlights tensions in crypto markets as exchanges balance business opportunities against regulatory and sanctions risks. HTX’s statement frames its actions as compliance-driven; U.K. authorities’ note raises suspicions but did not publicly produce direct evidence of coordination between the exchange and the sanctioned issuer. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news