Newsletter and email marketing firm Mailchimp has suspended the accounts of several crypto platforms over this week. Included among the newly suspended accounts are crypto wallet Edge, crypto intelligence gatherer Messari, and crypto news platform Decrypt.
Possibly first attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, the following quote is being being used more and more in relation to crypto and its fight for adoption:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
It might arguably be said that crypto is in the “fight” stage right now. Leaders of banks and other financial institutions are warning investors to stay away from crypto, and with regulation on the way that may well seek to shackle and suppress the burgeoning innovation that crypto brings to the table, this particular stage might well be the toughest.
The mailchimp action is a good example of heavy-handedness against crypto platforms that are trying their best to comply with regulations while providing honest and useful services to customers.
Messari founder Ryan Selkis, took to Twitter to tweet out his outrage that Mailchimp should be taking such an action against some of the most “reputable brands” in crypto.
According to an on Decrypt, the first that staff at Edge Wallet knew that something was amiss was when they logged in to Mailchimp to find that their account was “deactivated”.
In the same article Jesse Friedland, founder of NFT collection Cryptoon Goonz, tweeted out the following reason given by Mailchimp for the ban that was received:
"We cannot allow businesses involved in the sale, transaction, trading, exchange, storage, marketing, or production of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets."
Opinion
It might well be that Mailchimp holds the opinion that a company involved in any way with crypto deserves to have its account summarily withdrawn without warning. On the other hand, it might just be afraid of being reprimanded by authorities that may crack down on crypto companies and on any company that has dealings with them.
However, for any company to act on either of the above reasons does appear to be a step too far. Yes, the regulatory environment can change, and regulators can certainly start prosecuting crypto companies based on existing regulations.
Nevertheless, until this happens, it does appear to be a tale of a company taking sides. The ‘system’ is extremely wary of crypto, and this is likely to be as much an entrenched legacy financial system view, as it is a regulatory issue.
For non-crypto companies to take such anti-crypto actions, without any threats of reprisals against them for not doing so, is arguably a huge overreach of their social and regulatory responsibilities.
