Breaking: Ex-Binance Russia Chief's Arrest Tied to Shady Crypto Past!

From Binance to Blum: A Trail of Crypto Chaos

Holy smokes, folks! Vladimir Smerkis, the former head honcho of Binance Russia and a co-founder of the crypto app Blum, just got cuffed! And guess what? It's not just about his latest gig. Word on the street is that his arrest might be tied to some sketchy past crypto ventures that left investors high and dry.

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court slammed the cuffs on Smerkis late last week, and while the bigwigs haven't spilled the beans on the official charges yet, more dirt's coming out.

On May 18, the Telegram channel Mash dropped the bomb that Smerkis's arrest could be linked to his earlier flops, like The Token Fund and Tokenbox. Talk about a crypto graveyard!

Back in 2017, Smerkis launched The Token Fund, promising investors the moon with high returns on their TKN tokens. They raked in about $8 million before pulling the plug in 2018, leaving investors ghosted and out of pocket.

Then there's Tokenbox, another Smerkis brainchild that snagged $7 million. Its TBX token got listed on two exchanges but crashed faster than a lead balloon and went kaput.

And now, his latest brainchild, Blum—a Telegram Mini App that mixes crypto trading with game vibes—is feeling the heat. But hold up, the Blum team's quick to say they've cut ties with Smerkis. In a recent X post, they said he's out as CMO and not touching the project anymore.

Despite Blum's claims that everything's business as usual, Smerkis's arrest's thrown a wrench in their upcoming airdrop plans. They had this cool Drop Game launched in May 2024 where users could rack up Blum Points, supposedly convertible into Blum's native crypto. The airdrop was meant to happen soon after the game wrapped, but after a bunch of delays and cryptic updates, it's now pushed to Q2 2025—no solid date. And now, the community's buzzing with doubts about whether this token generation event will ever see the light of day.