Who is BlockFills?
BlockFills is a Chicago-based crypto fintech company founded in 2018 by Nick Hammer. It primarily provides over-the-counter (OTC) matching, liquidity provision, and crypto-secured lending services to professional investors such as hedge funds and digital asset management firms, with over 2,000 institutional clients worldwide.
This company has a significant background. In January 2022, it completed a $37 million Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to $44 million. Lead investors included Wall Street quantitative market-making giant Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, as well as CME Ventures (the venture capital arm of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange) and crypto lending platform Nexo, among others. Its total trading volume in 2025 exceeded $61 billion, making it a substantial player in the institutional crypto market.
The company is headquartered in Chicago and has offices in London, Dubai, São Paulo, and the Cayman Islands.
"Temporary measures" but the market is panicked.
On February 10th, TheMinerMag first reported that BlockFills had suspended customer deposits and withdrawals. The following day, BlockFills officially confirmed this in an official statement.
In light of recent market and financial conditions, and to protect customers and the company, BlockFills took temporary measures last week to suspend customer deposits and withdrawals.
The company emphasized that clients can still open and close positions in spot and derivatives markets, and special cases will be handled individually. BlockFills stated that it is "working closely with investors and clients" and promised to "commit to transparent communication and fully protect client rights," but did not provide a specific timetable for resuming deposits and withdrawals.
It is worth noting that the official statement did not specify what "financial condition" meant, whether it was insufficient liquidity, counterparty risk, or asset impairment. This vague statement has made the market more uneasy.
Bitcoin's value halved in six months; even institutional investors couldn't withstand the pressure.
BlockFills' freeze on deposits and withdrawals occurred precisely during the most severe sell-off in the crypto market in months:
- Bitcoin plummeted from its all-time high of $126,080 last October to a low of around $60,000, a drop of 47%, before rebounding to around $67,000.
- Ethereum plunges nearly 39% in a single month.
- XRP fell by approximately 35% during the same period.
- The overall crypto market has lost more than $2 trillion from its peak.
The crash was triggered by multiple factors, including massive net outflows from Bitcoin ETFs (US$7 billion in November, US$2 billion in December, and US$3 billion in January), hedge funds selling off previously accumulated basis trading positions, and stablecoin market capitalization decreasing by nearly US$14 billion from December to February, indicating that funds are accelerating their withdrawal from the crypto market.
For BlockFills, whose core business is lending and liquidity provision, a market crash means a sharp decline in the value of collateral and a surge in counterparty default risk. Freezing deposits and withdrawals may be an unavoidable measure to "stop the bleeding."
It feels like 2022: Genesis, BlockFi, and Celsius have all exploded.
In the cryptocurrency industry, "suspended withdrawals" are never a good sign. Let's look back at the painful history of 2022:
- Celsius Network announced a suspension of withdrawals in June 2022 and subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection.
- Voyager Digital froze deposits and withdrawals in July of the same year, and went bankrupt a few weeks later.
- BlockFi suspended withdrawals after FTX collapsed in November and eventually went bankrupt as well.
- Genesis Capital also suspended redemptions after the FTX incident, and urgently sought a $1 billion bailout, but ultimately went bankrupt.
Almost all crypto platforms that hold customer funds have gone bankrupt following a common pattern: first, they suspend withdrawals, then they reassure customers through their communities, and finally, they declare bankruptcy .
However, some analysts point out that the current situation differs structurally from that of 2022. Despite the significant market correction, there have been no major institutional collapses, and many exchanges, custody services, and blockchain networks are still operating normally.
With traditional financial giants like Susquehanna and CME Ventures backing it, whether BlockFills can weather this downturn is a crucial indicator that people in the crypto are currently paying close attention to.
