The Russian authorities have detained former Binance executive in the CIS countries, Vladimir Smerkis, on charges of cryptocurrency fraud.
This is reported by Finway
Smerkis was arrested in Moscow, and the decision to place him in custody was made by the Zamoskvoretsky District Court. Currently, details of the alleged offense are not being disclosed.
Following the arrest, Blum, which gained popularity through the Tap-to-Earn model, quickly distanced itself from its co-founder. In a statement on their official page on X (formerly Twitter), the team announced:
“We want to inform our community that Vladimir Smerkis has left his position as CMO [Chief Marketing Officer] and is no longer involved in the development of the project or in any capacity as a co-founder.”
Blum became part of the global Tap-to-Earn trend — mobile crypto gaming applications where users earn tokens simply by tapping on the screen. Players in Blum “collected” snowflakes, accumulating in-game currency that, according to the developers, can be converted into real money. This model gained popularity after the release of the game Hamster Kombat in 2024, which conducted a record token airdrop, attracting massive attention to similar models.
According to CoinGecko, the market for tap-to-earn projects is currently valued at nearly $537 million.
Recall that the launch of the Blum crypto platform was announced in March 2024.