Vladimir Smerkis’s arrest is reportedly linked to $15M lost in two collapsed crypto ventures

New revelations suggest that the arrest of Vladimir Smerkis, former Binance Russia chief and co-founder of crypto app Blum, may be linked to his involvement in earlier collapsed crypto ventures that left investors empty-handed.

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court ordered Smerkis’s arrest late last week, and while official charges haven’t been disclosed by the authorities, further information on the matter has now emerged.

On May 18, Telegram channel Mash reported that the reason for the arrest of Vladimir Smerkis may be linked to the earlier ventures founded by Smerkis, including the now-defunct crypto investment platforms The Token Fund and Tokenbox.

In 2017, Smerkis launched The Token Fund, a crypto investment vehicle in which users could purchase the TKN under the promise of high returns. The fund raised around $8 million before suddenly shutting down in 2018. Investors reportedly never recovered their funds.

Tokenbox, another project co-founded by Smerkis, reportedly raised $7 million in funding. Its native token TBX was listed on two crypto exchanges, but quickly plummeted in value and became inactive.

Smerkis’s most recent project, Blum—a Telegram Mini App combining crypto trading with gamified elements—has also come under scrutiny, although the team behind Blum has publicly distanced itself from the embattled co-founder. In a post on X this weekend, Blum’s official account stated that Smerkis had “stepped down from his role as CMO and is no longer involved in the development of the project or in any co-founder capacity.”

Despite reassurances from the company that day-to-day operations continue normally, the arrest has cast uncertainty over Blum’s upcoming airdrop. The airdrop was supposed to be for users who accumulated Blum Points by playing the Drop Game, a Telegram-based mini app launched by Blum in May 2024. These points were promoted as being convertible into the project’s native crypto tokens. The project initially suggested that the airdrop would take place shortly after the Drop Game ended, but after several extensions and vague updates, it was pushed to the second quarter of 2025, with no confirmed date. As a result, many in the community are now questioning whether the TGE will take place at all.