Volodymyr Smerkis, a former top manager of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance in the CIS countries and co-founder of the crypto service Blum, has been arrested in Moscow. He was detained on suspicion of fraud related to cryptocurrencies. This was reported by BeInCrypto.
This is reported by Business • Media
According to the decision of the Zamoskvoretsky District Court, which was made this week, the details of the alleged offense are currently not disclosed. Following the arrest, Blum, which gained popularity due to its Tap-to-Earn model, promptly removed Smerkis from his position as Chief Marketing Officer.
Statement from the Blum Team
On Blum’s official page on X (formerly Twitter), the team published a statement indicating:
“We want to inform our community that Volodymyr Smerkis has left the position of CMO [Chief Marketing Officer] and is no longer involved in the development of the project or in any capacity as a co-founder.”
Popularity of the Tap-to-Earn Model
Blum has become part of the global Tap-to-Earn trend, which involves the use of mobile crypto gaming applications where users earn tokens by tapping on the screen. In the case of Blum, players “collected” snowflakes that fell, 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 featured a record-breaking token airdrop that attracted massive attention to similar projects. As of today, the market for tap-to-earn projects is valued at nearly $537 million.
It is worth noting that the launch of the crypto platform Blum was announced in March 2024.