Prominent economist Nouriel Roubini, also known as Dr. Doom for his prediction of the 2008 financial crisis that came true, is a well-known cryptocurrency opponent. In today’s tweet, he slammed crypto — and altcoins in particular — referring to the news of a major crypto lending platform, BlockFills, suspending withdrawals for its customers.
To back his claims, Roubini added a source link to a Financial Times article about this incident.
In a recent tweet, Nouriel Roubini has commented on the current crypto market turbulence that has wiped out several billion dollars through liquidations and pushed Bitcoin from $90,000 to $60,000. Altcoins have lost from 50% to 99% in a matter of weeks, he stated, “depending on which s-coin you were duped to invest in.”
Roubini gave an example of negative consequences of such plunges, which can be particularly painful in the crypto space. He referred to the Susquehanna-backed crypto lender BlockFills, which has suspended withdrawals of crypto for its clients. The Susquehanna International Group is a privately held global trading and technology firm.
Aside from withdrawals, BlockFills has restricted trading activities, thus stressing the recent turmoil that has been shaking the cryptocurrency market. Initially, BlockFills boasted as much as $60 billion in trading volumes in 2025; however, the Bitcoin price plunge has hit it particularly hard.
The aforementioned restrictions were implemented last year, but they remain now as well. It has approximately 2,000 financial institutions among its customers, including asset managers and crypto-focused hedge funds. Only investors who hold a minimum of $10 million worth of crypto assets are eligible to use its options products.
The last time multiple crypto companies shut down withdrawals (and also went bankrupt) was three years ago, when major crypto exchange FTX went broke and its founder, billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, went to prison for defrauding investors. Before that, in the summer of 2022, several crypto lenders became insolvent — Celsius, Voyager, BlockFi, Vauld and Genesis. Back then, the crypto market faced the loss of nearly 70% of its value.
BlockFills has officially commented on the current situation, saying that the restrictions have been introduced to protect customers and the company itself.
