Hi I have a similar problem, as stated in Nix-shell by signal SIGSEGV (Address boundary error) (in my case in Linux/NixOS and only with nix-shell) and this flag made the command working again 
Thanks!
Without the flag, nix-shell is working in my system only if the derivation is not available locally, and it has to be downloaded (so the first time). At the second run, I have a segfault. Adding the option, nix-shell continues working after the first invocation.