MailChimp Begins Shutting Down Cryptocurrency and ICO-related Accounts

Popular email service MailChimp appears to be drinking the anti-crypto kool-aid and has reportingly begun shutting down cryptocurrency and ICO related accounts.

 MailChimp: No Crypto, Blockchain, or ICOs Allowed

Despite the stomach-churning roller coaster ride that has been the cryptocurrency market of late, the number of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) continues to rise. It seems like we hear about a new blockchain project or ICO on a daily basis and those projects rely on social media platforms and other tools – including email marketing tools like MailChimp – in order to expand their user base and promote their services.

According to Gizmodo article, MailChimp – one of the top five email marketing platforms according to Inc.com – has begun shutting down the accounts of websites that use their service for cryptocurrency and ICO promotions. The decision has left these projects scrambling to find alternate service providers.

.@MailChimp I’ve spent thousands of dollars with you and sent hundreds of subscriber emails on crypto over the past five years.

I’m restarting my Daily Bit Monday. I don’t shill ICOs. Don’t fuck with me. pic.twitter.com/XHdWBUQGPF

— Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) March 30, 2018

The ban comes about as MailChimp updated its Acceptable Use Policy to include the following:

[W]e cannot allow businesses involved in any aspect of the sale, transaction, exchange, storage, marketing or production of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an Initial Coin Offering, to use MailChimp to facilitate or support any of those activities.

A MailChimp spokesperson told Gizmodo:

Journalists and publications may send cryptocurrency-related information as long as they’re not involved in the production, sale, exchange, storage, or marketing of cryptocurrencies.

So news publications are safe. Really? Then how do you explain this:

So @MailChimp is closing the Week In Ethereum account in four weeks because they hate blockchains.

Centralized capricious power is exactly why we need blockchains

— Evan Van Ness (@evan_van_ness) March 29, 2018

Nice to know that MailChimp has cleaned up its own house before lowering the boom on the entire crypto community. Oh wait – they haven’t. Cleaned up their own house, that is. They still haven’t managed to stop hackers from hijacking email accounts and using them to send malware-infected emails.

This is the second instance I hear of @mailchimp shutting down accounts related to crypto-currencies. Not ones advertising ICOs, or even exchanges. Just news, books, event announcements. https://t.co/R424TfN50W

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) March 29, 2018

A Hard Time for Cryptocurrencies and ICOs

MailChimp isn’t the only service that has started to prohibit the marketing and promotion of cryptocurrency-related content. Social media and search giants Facebook, Twitter, and Google have also banned cryptocurrency and ICO-related advertising on their platforms.

As more and more means of promotion are denied cryptocurrency and ICO related projects and businesses, it will be interesting to see who steps into the breach to fill the gap that MailChimp and the others have so unwisely left behind.

What are your thoughts on Mailchimp’s decision to ban cryptocurrency related promotions? Do you think that they may reconsider their decision? Let us know in the comments below!

 Images courtesy of Flickr/tomoswyn