On May 19, according to TheBlock, Vladimir Smerkis, co-founder of the Telegram mini-app Blum (former general manager of Binance in Russia and the CIS region), was arrested in Moscow on fraud charges. The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court found him suspected of "large-scale fraud", with the specific amount involved not yet disclosed. The market speculates it may be related to The Token Fund and Tokenbox projects he operated early on, which raised millions of dollars before disappearing.
Blum's official X account has issued an emergency statement saying Smerkis has resigned from his CMO position and is no longer involved in project development or co-founder affairs, emphasizing that the team's operations are not affected and the airdrop plan will still proceed as originally scheduled in Q2 2025. Blum had previously received support from Binance Labs' "Most Valuable Builder" accelerator.
