The European Commission has launched an informal crypto task force to improve detection and enforcement against digital-asset routes used to evade financial restrictions on Russia. Financial Services Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque announced the initiative after a November 5 meeting in Brussels, while Commission spokesperson Siobhan McGarry described the group on November 6 as a body combining national and Commission expertise. The task force is initially planned to operate for 12 months and will draw on expertise from Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Its work will focus on identifying crypto-enabled circumvention methods, closing enforcement loopholes and improving cross-border information sharing, guidance, economic analysis and technical support. The initiative accompanies a separate sanctions office intended to coordinate policy, implementation support, outreach and anti-circumvention efforts across member states. It follows EU measures adopted under successive Russia sanctions packages, including the April 23 20th package covering Russian crypto service providers and decentralized trading platforms, and the July 23 21st package, which added four A7 network designations, transaction bans on 14 crypto-related platforms across six jurisdictions and a mechanism for restricting crypto services in designated third countries. The A7A5 stablecoin, issued by Kyrgyzstan-based Old Vector and linked to the A7 cross-border payments network, moved more than $100 billion in its first year, Elliptic reported, although average daily volume had fallen 96% from its July 2025 peak by June 2026. Separately, the U.S. Treasury alleged that MEXC Global facilitated at least $16 billion in illicit transactions, including nearly $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion and almost $200 million connected to A7A5. FinCEN ordered U.S. financial institutions to stop processing transfers involving the exchange, with the restriction taking effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.