BlockFills lost ~$75–80M on lending and a mining bet — Chapter 11 in March 2026

BlockFills, a Chicago-based institutional crypto liquidity provider founded in 2018 by Nick Hammer and Gordon Wallace, served hedge funds, trading desks and crypto-native institutions with OTC trading, derivatives and lending. By early 2026 it had accumulated roughly $75–80 million in losses across its lending, trading and crypto-mining operations.

The losses came from defaults by crypto borrowers including Babel Finance and AEXA Digital, an ill-fated crypto-mining venture that reportedly cost about $30 million, and falling digital-asset prices that eroded the collateral backing its loans. In February 2026 the firm suspended client deposits and withdrawals to manage a liquidity crunch.

New York investment firm Dominion Capital then sued, alleging BlockFills had misused and commingled customer assets, and a US federal judge froze about 70 bitcoin tied to the dispute. On March 15, 2026, BlockFills' operator Reliz Ltd filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the District of Delaware. Co-founder and CEO Nick Hammer stepped down.

The firm had once processed tens of billions of dollars in annual volume for around 2,000 institutional clients and raised more than $40 million from investors including CME Ventures, Susquehanna Private Equity and Nexo.