This week, crypto news publishers are rummaging for new providers as Mailchimp continues its round of unannounced account suspensions. Messari was its latest target.
“Thank you for deplatforming some of crypto’s most reputable brands in the past 48 hours,” Messari founder Ryan Selkis tweeted at Mailchimp on Wednesday. “You’re proving our point. Mailchimp – and all speech censors – must be destroyed.”
The email marketing platform Mailchimp has been suspending accounts of crypto-related content creators and media outlets this week. Some of the affected customers were self-custody wallet Edge, crypto intelligence firm Messari, and Decrypt. These entities have been using Mailchimp for more than four years.
Messari’s marketing lead Jared Ronis shared that Mailchimp did not issue a warning before suspending them from using the platform. He said, “Not only was there zero warning, but we also can’t even access our subscriber lists. If @Mailchimp’s management of crypto clients is this haphazard, I shiver to think of what enforcement looks like for actual nefarious actors.” Decrypt also had the same experience.
Edge, on the other hand, experienced this problem on Monday, when the firm was preparing to send out its bi-weekly newsletter. The marketing lead of the company, Joelly Gloria, attempted to log in to the account, only to find out its deactivated status.
Although the unannounced deactivation shook Edge up, its CEO, Paul Puey, expressed that they had no choice. Only a handful of platforms offer the same services as Mailchimp. “While Web3 is making a lot of attempts at finding other ways of communicating with people if you’re trying to hit email,” Puey told Decrypt over the phone, “you’re kind of stuck with platforms like Mailchimp.”
Several reports of suspension from using Mailchimp also surfaced on Twitter in the past two weeks. On August 1, NFT artist Ocarina tweeted that their Mailchimp account was suspended. They only found out about the suspension when they were trying to send out a word about an upcoming NFT drop. Unlike the others, Ocarina got an explanation from Mailchimp. The email marketing platform told Ocarina, “the content associated with your industry conflicts with our Acceptable Use Policy.”
The founder of the NFT collection Cryptoon Goonz, Jesse Friedland, also shared a tweet on August 5 saying that he got banned from using Mailchimp. “Apparently, there’s too much ‘risk’ servicing companies involved in crypto. Despite applying as an Apparel brand. Extremely disappointing.” He also shared a screenshot of the email he received from Mailchimp. The email said, “We cannot allow businesses involved in the sale, transaction, trading, exchange, storage, marketing, or production of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets.”
Greg Osuri, who is the founder of peer-to-peer Akash Network, also tweeted that the company got banned from the platform.
When asked to comment about Mailchimp’s decision to suspend accounts at a time when the sanctions against Tornado Cash surfaced, Edge Wallet CEO Puey believed that there was no correlation. Although it crossed his mind, he remained adamant that the two incidents were not related.
“It’s simple, basic communication over email, something that hundreds of companies utilize with no implication of illicit activity, no implication,” he said. “Email is absolutely 100% in the clear; it’s fully transparent – it’s the most non-private communication you could choose to use.”
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