Sanctioned before it ever traded: Rostec's ruble token goes live
RubX, a ruble stablecoin tied to Russia's state defense conglomerate Rostec (
@Rostec_Russia), soft-launched July 17 and began offering Tether swaps via Telegram a week later, per blockchain data reviewed by the Kyiv Independent. The EU had already sanctioned the token in April, months before its first trade, while the US has not.
Russia just legalized crypto trading under central bank oversight this month but still bans crypto payments domestically, so analysts see ruble tokens mainly as on-ramps into USDT for cross-border procurement. Identified wallets already hold RubX worth roughly $110M and potentially over $1.1B, with volumes still thin.