Mailchimp, email marketing platform, has been suspending the accounts of crypto-related content creators. This has affected Edge, a self-custody crypto wallet, and crypto intelligence firm Messari, among others.
Ryan Selkis, Messari founder, tweeted a cryptic thank you to Mailchimp for deplatforming some of crypto’s most reputable brands in the past 48 hours. He said Mailchimp and all speech censors must be destroyed. Jared Ronis, marketing lead at Messari, highlighted that there was no warning. The firm can’t even access its subscriber lists. Ronis said that if Mailchimp’s management of crypto clients is this haphazard, he can’t imagine what enforcement looks like for actual nefarious actors.
Edge came across the issue when it was preparing to send out its bi-weekly newsletter. Jolly Garcia, the community manager, tried to log into the account, but it returned as a deactivated account. Paul Puey, Edge Wallet CEO, says the problem is with good old-fashioned email and it hasn’t been brought into Web3 yet. He outlined that Web3 is making a lot of attempts at finding other ways of communicating with people. But if one is trying to hit email, they are kind of stuck with platforms like Mailchimp.
Ocarina, an NFT artist, tweeted on August 1 that their Mailchimp account was suspended when trying to send out details about an upcoming NFT drop. The artist shared that Mailchimp replied that because the content associated with the crypto industry conflicts with Mailchimp’s acceptable use policy. The founder of the NFT collection Cryptoon Goonz, Jesse Friedland, was banned on August 5. He tweeted that there seems too much risk servicing companies involved in crypto, despite applying as an Apparel brand. This left the artist extremely disappointed.
Mailchimp said it cannot allow businesses involved in the sale, transaction, trading, exchange, storage, marketing, or production of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets. Under prohibited content, the acceptable use policy lists cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to initial coin offering (ICO) – Mailchimp doesn’t allow businesses that offer these types of services, products, or content.
