The A7A5 ruble stablecoin: $140 billion in turnover and 2,000 payments daily
The ruble stablecoin A7A5 is confidently cementing its status as the largest non-dollar digital asset. Since its launch, nearly $140 billion has flowed through this payment infrastructure, and the A7 platform processes up to 2,000 transactions per day. These figures were announced by PSB Chairman Pyotr Fradkov, emphasizing the scale and maturity of the project.
The numbers are impressive, especially against earlier estimates that were limited to $100 billion. The $40 billion difference is not just a statistical margin of error, but evidence of explosive growth and real demand for a ruble instrument bypassing traditional banking channels. Fradkov also noted that A7 has about 15,000 companies as regular clients—ranging from large businesses to small enterprises and individuals.
Who pays through A7A5 and why
The head of PSB refuted assumptions that large export contracts are artificially split into small transfers to inflate turnover. "Of course not. We have 15,000 companies as regular clients using A7 products. That's a lot, and they are companies of various levels," he stated. Among the users are not only corporations, but also micro-businesses, as well as individuals using the stablecoin for everyday payments.
Typical use cases include paying for vacations, medical treatment, and education abroad. "Life goes on. People travel for leisure, seek medical care, and pay for education. The system allows this. It's a working mechanism," the banker explained. The platform's versatility explains the range of amounts in the statistics: a flow of small transfers from citizens and medium-sized businesses shapes the reported turnover.
Notably, A7A5 remains the largest ruble stablecoin on the market, pegged to the national currency and servicing payments unavailable through standard banking channels. At the same time, the Bank of Russia does not comment on the project, although the scale of operations has long outgrown the experimental framework. Some market participants are already trying to launch alternative ruble stablecoins, seeking to bypass A7A5's dominance.
My view: A7A5's metrics are not just a success story for a single project, but a marker of a structural shift. The market has de facto legitimized stablecoins as a tool for cross-border payments, and the regulator's disregard for this trend creates a zone of uncertainty. The question is not whether this segment will grow, but when and how the state will decide to formalize its rules of the game.