The BlockDAG Failure

BlockDAG initially scheduled its token launch for June 2025. That deadline was extended to August 2025. Then to late January 2026. Then to early February 2026. The presale ultimately ended on February 2, 2026 — but as of the most recent reporting, exchange trading still had not begun on the published timeline.

Critics have characterised the repeated "final chance" framing as a manufactured-urgency tactic that pressures retail investors into committing more money before each successive deadline.

For BlockDAG's first seven months, its team was anonymous. The publicly named CEO, Antony Turner, was identified as the project's leader for over a year. In October 2025, on-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly named Gurhan Kiziloz as the project's actual founder.

Kiziloz confirmed this in an investor AMA on December 29, 2025, telling investors:

"The reason we hired Antony was because I had a few failed projects in the past."

This is one of the most direct admissions on the record that the project's leadership had been deliberately obscured.

In March 2025, the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles issued a public warning against BlockDAG and the company behind it, DAG Systems Ltd., for unauthorised activity under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act. The company was struck off and dissolved as of April 1, 2025.

This is a primary regulatory document — not allegation, not analysis, but the Seychelles regulator's own published warning.

BlockDAG's website claims it has raised $442 million. In a phone call with DL News, CEO Nic Van Den Bergh said the real figure was approximately $200 million.

The project did not answer follow-up questions about the source of the discrepancy or whether funds raised through traditional payment processors (Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay) were being held off-chain rather than flowing through the public blockchain wallets investors can verify.

On October 29, 2025, ZachXBT publicly alleged that Kiziloz had been "transferring away millions in presale funds from unsophisticated retail investors via Middle Eastern OTC brokers." He has also alleged that on-chain receipts total less than the nine-figure sums BlockDAG advertises.

BlockDAG's response was to block ZachXBT's account on X and remove his replies that named Kiziloz as the founder.

ZachXBT and others have reported that the name "Gurhan Kiziloz" is a banned word in BlockDAG's official Telegram group, with messages mentioning him deleted automatically.

YouTubers covering the allegations — including the channel Crypto Father — have had videos removed via copyright complaints filed against content that referenced Kiziloz. At least one video, titled "BlockDAG's Co-Founder Linked to Scams," was specifically targeted.

A January 2026 investigation by DL News documented multiple investor accounts of mining hardware (the X-Series miners) that was paid for but never delivered. The investigation also found unpaid contractors and employees, and breached commercial agreements.

One Australian investor profiled in the piece sank approximately $25,000 across 22 transactions between April 2024 and May 2025. He has yet to receive either the miners he was promised or the tokens he was promised in lieu of them.

BlockDAG built much of its credibility through sponsorship deals with globally recognised sports brands. Several of those relationships have since soured, with rights holders alleging unpaid invoices, unauthorised use of trademarks and imagery, or both.

• Borussia Dortmund — the Bundesliga club's partnership was promoted heavily across BlockDAG's marketing channels. Reporting and investor accounts describe unpaid sponsorship fees and the club distancing itself from the project after the ZachXBT allegations surfaced.
• Inter Milan — BlockDAG branding appeared in association with the Serie A side as part of a wider Web3 push. Disputes over outstanding payments and the continued use of Inter's marks in BlockDAG creative followed.
• Seattle Seahawks / "Seattle 49ers" campaign — a US sports tie-in promoted to presale buyers as proof of mainstream credibility. Rights holders subsequently issued cease-and-desist demands over BlockDAG's use of team imagery beyond what the contract permitted.
• Alpine F1 — the Formula 1 team featured BlockDAG branding during the 2024–2025 seasons. As with the football clubs, investors and journalists have reported unpaid invoices and legal letters demanding the project stop using Alpine's name and livery in its marketing.

The pattern across all four deals is consistent: large up-front announcements aimed at retail investors, followed quietly by unpaid bills, abused IP rights, and legal demands once presale capital had been raised on the back of the association.