USDT News: Russia Utilizing Cryptocurrencies to Bypass Sanctions in Oil Trade

In a strategic shift to circumvent Western sanctions, Russia is reportedly leveraging cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum to facilitate its oil trade with India and China. Here’s a closer look at this developing trend and its implications for the global economy.

Russia Leveraging Crypto for Oil Trade to Bypass Sanctions

Russia has reportedly turned to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to facilitate its oil trade with India and China, using digital assets to circumvent Western sanctions. While fiat currencies still dominate the majority of transactions, digital assets are becoming a small but growing component of the country’s energy trade. Reuters first reported the development, stating that Russian oil companies are converting Chinese yuan and Indian rupees into rubles using stablecoins like Tether (USDT). The process involves a Chinese buyer paying for Russian oil in yuan to an offshore trading company, with an intermediary converting the funds into crypto before transferring them through multiple accounts.

Crypto Scam Strikes Uniswap: Trader Loses $215K in Seconds

A crypto trader was targeted in a sandwich attack on March 12 while making a $220,764 stablecoin transfer. The attack resulted in the trader losing nearly 98% of their funds to a Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bot. The trader swapped $220,764 worth of USD Coin (USDC) for only $5,271 worth of Tether (USDT) in just eight seconds. The MEV bot successfully front-ran the transaction, pocketing over $215,500. Ethereum’s blockchain data reveals that the attack targeted Uniswap v3’s USDC-USDT liquidity pool, which holds around $19.8 million in locked assets. The MEV bot manipulated the transaction by first removing all USDC liquidity from the Uniswap v3 pool and then reinserted the liquidity right after the victim’s transaction was completed.

Tether Transfers 1 Billion USDT to HTX Crypto Exchange

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, transferred 1 billion USDT to the Asian cryptocurrency exchange platform HTX. According to on-chain data tracking service Whale Alert, Tether minted 1 billion USDT on the Tron network before making the transfer. Tron founder Justin Sun hinted at a Tron season for HTX and the two biggest exchanges in the world after the transfer.