River Financial has filed suit against Blockstream Services Canada, accusing the Canadian bitcoin mining services company of failing to pay a multi-million dollar settlement after the two sides unwound a mining services arrangement.
According to the complaint, Blockstream Services Canada was formerly part of Blockstream Corporation but was spun out in mid-2024 and now only licenses the Blockstream name. River alleges the company stopped paying on March 31, 2026 and defaulted on the settlement, remaining in default through September 11, when River filed the lawsuit. A US magistrate judge has already recused himself from the case, and the court reassigned it to a new judge on September 15.
The president of Blockstream Services Canada who signed the early termination agreement with River on December 13, 2024 was Christopher Cook. Protos reported that, according to two researchers, Cook is a convicted felon who spent more than a year in prison for an unrelated fraud conviction.
A dispute rooted in a 2021 hosting agreement
The new lawsuit traces back to December 2021, when River signed a managed hosting agreement with Blockstream Services Canada. At the time, CEO Alex Leishman was rolling out River Mining, a business that sold hosted BTC miners.
As part of that effort, River says it prepaid almost $7.8 million in 2021 and 2022 across three Hosting Services Orders, depositing money with Blockstream for a range of services. By December 13, 2024, Blockstream still held $4.3 million of those prepayments, and the companies agreed to phase out the initiative through a termination agreement signed the same day.
Under that exit deal, River says Blockstream owed roughly $3.5 million as a refund of prepaid hosting fees and another $3.1 million as an early termination fee. That put the total at $6.7 million. The payments were due in monthly installments of $239,389.40 starting on August 1, 2025.
River says missed payments led to default
Protos said the timing of the lawsuit prompted some concern that it might be tied to the recent hack involving the Blockstream-supported Liquid Network. After reviewing documents from the PACER docket, however, the outlet said the two matters are entirely unrelated. River alleges the first missed installment happened about half a year before the Liquid Network hack existed.
River says it began sending demand letters for overdue payments to Blockstream Services Canada on April 10, warning that overdue balances would accrue interest at 9.75%. The company also claims Blockstream Services Canada acknowledged the outstanding balance in writing on May 27.
The lawsuit alleges breach of contract and unjust enrichment.