Smerkis Arrest Extended: Ex-Binance Exec & Blum Co-Founder Faces Major Fraud Charges

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Crypto world shaken again: A Moscow court has extended the arrest of Vladimir Smerkis, former head of Binance in the CIS and co-founder of the rising crypto app Blum.

What happened:

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court decided to keep Smerkis in pre-trial detention.

He’s been charged with large-scale fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

The alleged damage in the case is around $100,000, though the defense claims he’s already fully repaid it.

️ What his defense says:

Lawyers asked for bail, house arrest, or restricted actions instead of jail, citing Russian criminal procedure law that allows detaining entrepreneurs only in exceptional cases (like being a flight risk).

The court dismissed those arguments and upheld the arrest as lawful.

The backstory:

Smerkis was detained in May 2025.

Initially, only crypto blogger Oleg Polunin spoke out, saying he paid for an ad in Blum’s Telegram channel and got bot traffic instead of real users.

Smerkis responded in court that the service was delivered — saying 2.5 million users came after the ad ran.

Blum’s response:

Smerkis stepped down as Chief Marketing Officer.

The company stated he is no longer involved in development and is not considered a co-founder anymore.

Who is Smerkis?

Previously worked at Red Bull, Mail.ru Group (VK), Travel Technology Group.

Entered crypto in 2017 with The Token Fund and Tokenbox.

Launched Blum in 2024 alongside Gleb Kostarev (another ex-Binance exec).

Blum’s Telegram channel is the second largest after Hamster Kombat.

While his former partner continues building Blum, Smerkis is now facing a legal battle that could land him up to a decade behind bars.

More updates as they come.
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