Warning and status record

Garantex Status and Official Warnings

Read Garantex's documented status, named domains and official warnings with dated sources and practical next steps.

By the CoinReckon editorial desk · Published

Evidence snapshot: · Evidence updated 2026-10-19 · Methodology 1.3.

Documentary review. No deposit, trade, withdrawal or support test was performed for this page. Read the methodology.

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United States · Status record

Garantex: recorded position

Status only - no numeric rating

  • sanctioned
  • ceased operations
  • regulator warning

Access and exclusions

Not available in the recorded evidence · evidence dated .

Garantex is not a service a US reader can open an account with today. What exists instead is a paper trail: a sanctions designation, seized domains, an EU listing and a federal criminal case. This page sets out what those documents say, with the dates attached, and what practical steps follow if you once held a balance there.

Current documented status

The brand is Garantex; the legal entity named in the US record is Garantex Europe OÜ, and the primary domain is garantex.org 113. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control placed Garantex Europe OU on the SDN list on April 5, 2022 and redesignated it on August 14, 2025 under the cyber authority in Executive Order 13694 1. In March 2025, US law enforcement seized the garantex.org, garantex.io and garantex.academy domains as part of an international disruption operation 2. Availability for US users is recorded as no, as of the evidence date of October 19, 2026 12.

CoinReckon has not yet rated Garantex. This is a status page built from official records, not a scored review, and nothing here is a recommendation to use the service.

Which entity or domain the record names

Four things get conflated in coverage of this exchange, and keeping them apart changes what you can conclude.

The brand launched in 2019. The company behind it was Garantex Europe OÜ, registered in Estonia (EE), while day-to-day operations ran out of Russia, which the record lists as the headquarters country 113. That Estonian company was later renamed Kihonzi Buzhaga OÜ and struck from the commercial register on March 20, 2024, while the brand kept operating 13. Separately, OFAC identifies Grinex as a successor built by Garantex staff and designated it on August 14, 2025 1. Grinex is a different company, and any site reusing the Garantex name is not the designated entity's licensed continuation of anything.

Documented item Dated value and scope Practical implication
Operating entity Garantex Europe OÜ, Estonia (EE); brand founded 2019, headquarters recorded as Russia 113 Contracting party was Estonian on paper only; the Estonian company no longer exists
OFAC status SDN since April 5, 2022; redesignated August 14, 2025 1 Property blocked; US persons are barred from dealings
EU status Listed February 24, 2025 by Council Regulation (EU) 2025/391 20 Garantex plus six crypto addresses frozen in the EU
Domains in official actions garantex.org, garantex.io, garantex.academy, seized March 2025 2 Any live site on a similar name is outside the seized set
US availability No, as of October 19, 2026 12 No lawful retail access for US residents
New York (US-NY) No separate state basis recorded; value is "none," October 19, 2026 12 Federal measures apply; the blank is not a state-level allowance

Timeline of warnings and actions

February 2022. Estonia's Financial Intelligence Unit revoked the digital-asset services license, citing critical AML/CFT breaches and connections to wallets tied to criminal activity 1. That decision was carried out, and the entity was later wound up.

April 5, 2022. OFAC designated Garantex Europe OU under Executive Order 14024. By OFAC's account, more than $100 million in transactions since 2019 served illicit actors, including Hydra Market and the Conti ransomware group 1.

October 2022. Armed police searched the exchange's office in Federation Tower, Moscow. Operations stopped briefly and resumed the following day 13. A dated incident, not a continuing condition.

March 20, 2024. The Estonian company, by then renamed, was removed from the commercial register 13.

February 24, 2025. The Council of the EU added Garantex and six associated crypto addresses to its asset-freeze annex under Regulation (EU) 2025/391, the first time the EU named specific crypto addresses 20.

March 6-7, 2025. The three domains were seized under a court order, more than $26 million in cryptocurrency was frozen, and an indictment was unsealed charging two administrators with money laundering conspiracy, with one also charged over sanctions violations and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business 2. Those are charges. They are allegations until a court rules.

August 14, 2025. OFAC redesignated Garantex, designated Grinex along with company executives and six related firms, and the US government announced rewards totaling up to $6 million 1.

What the status means for US readers

The practical answer is short: a US person cannot lawfully trade, deposit or withdraw here. An SDN designation blocks the designated party's property within US jurisdiction and generally prohibits US persons from transacting with it 1. That applies to the successor entity Grinex as well, from its August 14, 2025 designation 1. Moving a balance to a differently named site in the same network does not step outside the designation.

New York deserves its own line because readers often assume state regulators publish a parallel verdict. This evidence record records no separate New York basis; the field reads "none" 12. That is an absence of a state-level document, not clearance from one. Federal sanctions and the March 2025 seizure apply to New York residents exactly as they apply elsewhere, and the New York Department of Financial Services never issued a BitLicense or trust charter to this exchange that could be pointed to either way.

Direction of authority matters too. The 2022 Estonian revocation was an Estonian regulator's decision about an Estonian license 1; it is not a US judgment, and the EU listing is not one either. The US-facing conclusions rest on the OFAC designations and the Justice Department action 12. Treat a foreign alert as evidence about the operator's history, and treat the US documents as the ones that govern what you are allowed to do.

Funds, claims and official guidance

There is no claims process in this record. The documented claims route is "none," which means no official filing form, no deadline and no compensation program is named here, and the seized domains now display a law enforcement notice rather than an account login 2.

For US residents, the official contact recorded in this evidence record is the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov, where a complaint creates a dated record tied to your identity and amounts. Filing is not a claim on seized assets and carries no promise of return.

One more thing worth saying plainly: anyone offering to recover Garantex or Grinex balances for an upfront fee is not operating an official process. No authority in this record has announced one. Pay nothing, and keep your documentation.

Practical next steps and evidence limits

Work through this before you act on anything you read about the exchange, including this page.

  1. Identity and geography. Check which name appears in the document you are relying on: Garantex Europe OÜ (Estonia, struck from the register in 2024), Grinex (designated separately in August 2025), or a site simply reusing the brand.
  2. Intended operation. If the operation is trading, depositing or withdrawing as a US person, the designation closes it off 1. There is no compliant version of that transaction.
  3. Documented cost or status limit. No fee schedule, claims process or deadline appears in this record. Blank fields are missing data, not evidence that something favorable exists.
  4. Custody boundary. Balances were custodial. After the March 2025 domain and server seizures there is no self-custody path to them described in this record 2.
  5. Next step. Export what you have, including transaction dates, amounts, addresses, hashes and screenshots of balances and correspondence, then file with IC3 and keep copies offline.

What this evidence record does not settle: whether any successor platform is currently operating, and the cumulative transaction volume figures published by different investigators, which differ. Those gaps are stated rather than filled in.

Quick questions

Which Garantex domain does the warning name? The official actions name garantex.org, garantex.io and garantex.academy, all seized in March 2025 2. The primary domain in the record is garantex.org. Sites on other spellings are not part of that named set.

Does the evidence record provide a recovery or claims route? No. The documented claims process is "none," so there is no official form or deadline recorded here. The only official contact in the record is IC3 for reporting.

Does an official warning establish every allegation as proven? No. The OFAC designations and the EU listing are administrative decisions, and the March 2025 indictment contains charges that have not been proven in court 1220. The Estonian license revocation was carried out as a regulatory decision in February 2022 1.

Where to go from here

If you were a customer, build your record file first and file with IC3 second. For comparison of services that are actually open to US residents, start at the category hub or read a related service profile. Our criteria and evidence rules are set out in how CoinReckon assesses services, and the wider index sits at all crypto service reviews. Spotted an error or a newer official document? Send an editorial correction.

Evidence on this page comes from a evidence record updated October 19, 2026 and imported October 20, 2026. Dates shown are the dates of the underlying documents or events.

Sources

General educational information, not personal investment, legal or tax advice. Crypto assets can lose value, and documentary analysis is not a guarantee of safety, access or recovery of funds. CoinReckon publishes no affiliate links or purchase incentives on this page.