Vladimir Smerkis, co-founder of the crypto recreation Blum and former head of Binance’s CIS division, has been arrested in Moscow on suspicion of fraud.
The Zamoskvoretsky District Court docket ordered his detention this week. Authorities haven’t disclosed the specifics of the alleged felony exercise.
Blum Distances Itself From Vladimir Smerkis
Blum rose to prominence as a part of the “tap-to-earn” wave—video games the place customers repeatedly faucet their screens to earn digital tokens. In Blum’s case, gamers tapped falling snowflakes to gather in-game foreign money, which the venture claimed might be exchanged for real-world cash.
The arrest comes as scrutiny intensifies over tap-to-earn platforms. In an announcement shared with its 5.3 million followers on X (Twitter), Blum clarified that Smerkis not has any function within the firm.
“We want to inform our group that Vladimir Smerkis has stepped down from his function as CMO and is not concerned within the improvement of the venture or in any co-founder capability,” the crew posted.
Faucet-to-earn video games have drawn international consideration following the viral success of Hamster Kombat in 2024. That recreation’s large token airdrop, the most important within the crypto business to this point, introduced the customers’ consideration to this sector.
Blum rapidly adopted as one in every of a number of tap-to-earn tasks. Immediately, the tap-to-earn phase holds a market cap of $511 million, based on knowledge from CoinGecko.
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