The owner of «Softclub,» Sirotka, who is currently held in the KGB pre-trial detention center, has also been hit by Poland — his cryptocurrency exchange, Bynex, has been sanctioned

The decision to add Erpbel to Poland’s national sanctions list was made on October 30, 2025, based on a letter from the head of Poland’s Internal Security Agency.

The justification is vague, with references to certain materials classified as «secret.»

The publicly available part reads as follows:

— Erpbel operates in the High Technology Park, established by a decree of the President of Belarus.

— The HTP is under the direct control of the Belarusian state apparatus; therefore, HTP companies are dependent on the authorities (an example is given of Synesis — a company whose cameras were used for facial recognition of Belarusians — NN).

— In 2021, Erpbel established cooperation with Belarusbank, which is under international sanctions; this was part of the bank’s digital transformation and allowed the servicing of fiat currencies on the Bynex crypto exchange, including transactions with VISA, U.S. dollars, and Belarusian rubles.

— From 2022 to 2023, the company’s director was Iryna Lysakouskaya, formerly the chief accountant of Belarusbank, the decision states.

Thus, it is indicated that Erpbel’s activities may be used for:

— circumventing sanctions;

— supporting the authorities of Belarus;

— supporting Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The decision freezes all the company’s funds and economic resources in Poland and prohibits making any direct or indirect payments to it or carrying out any actions aimed at circumventing these sanctions.

The company has 30 days to appeal the decision, but this is largely a formality — so far, no company added to Poland’s national sanctions list due to the war in Ukraine has successfully challenged its inclusion.

What kind of company is Erpbel, and what could have caused it trouble in Europe?

Erpbel is the operator of one of Belarus’s central cryptocurrency exchanges, Bynex, founded in 2019.

Bynex is a development of Softclub. However, the company is not formally part of the holding — it keeps separate financial statements and is not directly owned by Softclub. Instead, Erpbel’s beneficiaries are Softclub’s managers and employees as private individuals.

For example, Uladzimir Sirotka — a defendant in the Softclub case — owns 23.78% of Erpbel. The same share belongs to Softclub’s Deputy Director for Technology and Quality, Oleg Kernog. Other shareholders (14 in total, most affiliated with Softclub) hold smaller stakes.

The situation is made more intriguing by the fact that Erpbel had not previously attracted the attention of Belarusian opposition organizations that compile sanction lists. This means Poland discovered compromising information on its own.

A large portion of Erpbel’s employees — particularly developers — work from Poland, having relocated there for political or personal reasons. It’s possible that insider information about the company’s operations reached the Polish authorities from one of its employees.

Bynex’s financial success after 2022 is indeed difficult to explain solely by the growing interest in cryptocurrencies among Belarusian individuals.

Thus, in 2024, compared to the pre-war year 2021, the crypto exchange’s turnover increased by more than 2,000%: in 2024, 953 million Belarusian rubles were credited to Erpbel’s Belarusian accounts (cash flow statement, item 020). In 2021, the figure was only 44 million rubles.

At the same time, Western financial and political institutions have accused Russia of using cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions. Earlier, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Russian crypto exchange Garantex and its successors Grinex, Exved, and others.

The Bynex case is the first instance in which a Belarusian crypto exchange has been sanctioned — so far, only by Poland. However, the accusation of helping Russia finance purchases through cryptocurrencies is not stated directly; instead, it is veiled within a long chain of logic that could, in principle, apply to almost any resident company of the HTP.

The situation is further distinguished by the fact that the company’s owners are now in trouble with security services in two countries hostile to each other — Belarus and Poland.

• 2
• 0
• 2
• 0
• 1
• 0
• 0
• 0