Stablecoin volume reached $35 trillion in 2025 as illicit share stays below 0.5%

Less than 0.5% of stablecoin transactions were tied to illicit activity in 2025, according to a recent report by blockchain analytics platform TRM Labs.

Illicit flows accounted for roughly 0.4% of overall activity, underscoring that stablecoin usage remains overwhelmingly legitimate, TRM Labs' analysis showed.

TRM said 2025 was the first year stablecoin activity exceeded $1 trillion in monthly transaction volume multiple times, with sustained throughput rather than short-lived speculative spikes.

In 2024, stablecoin transaction volume experienced unprecedented growth with total onchain transfer volume exceeding $27.5 trillion, and in 2025, it increased by nearly 20% to at least $35 trillion.

Illicit activity followed a similar trajectory of concentration and scale. In 2025, illicit entities received $141 billion in stablecoins, the highest level observed in five years, of which $72 billion was linked to the A7A5 token, a ruble-pegged stablecoin operating within sanctions-linked networks.

Oleg Ogienko, A7A5's director for Regulatory and Overseas Affairs, told CoinDesk that “TRM Labs tries to call all Russian external trade illicit or illegal. But this is of course a wrong statement.”

In separate comments during an interview at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, Ogienko was even more defiant, saying he was looking to debate anyone who accuses him of breaking any compliance laws through his stablecoin company.

“We are fully compliant with the regulations of Kyrgyzstan. We do not do illegal things,” he said. "We have KYC procedures, and we have AML mechanisms embedded into our infrastructure. We do not violate any Financial Action Task Force principles."

However, Old Vector LLC and A7 LLC, A7A5's issuing and affiliated entities, and Promsvyazbank (PSB), the bank that holds the reserves, are sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, barring the U.S. dollar-denominated financial world from interacting with them.

TRM Labs report said stablecoins accounted for 86% of all illicit crypto flows in 2025, underscoring how dominant they have become within high-risk ecosystems. Sanctions-related networks consolidated dramatically in 2025, with the A7 ecosystem alone tied to at least $83 billion in direct volume. These networks increasingly resemble parallel cross-border financial systems rather than isolated actors.

By comparison, 2024 represented a scaling phase. Laundering infrastructure such as guarantee services expanded rapidly from 2022 through mid-2025, peaking above $17 billion per quarter, with roughly 99% of volume denominated in stablecoins. But the institutionalization and centralization seen in 2025, particularly via A7 and front-company exchanges, had not yet reached the same scale.