Overview
- On July 22, Poolin Technology filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- The company owes approximately $163.7 million to around 11,700 users, making it its largest single debt.
- Thor CALAP LLC has made a $52 million stalking-horse bid for Poolin's two mining facilities located in West Texas, establishing a baseline for an upcoming court-managed auction.
Poolin Technology Pte. Ltd., the Singapore-based entity that was once a major player in Bitcoin mining, initiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings on July 22. This U.S. legal framework allows a company to continue operating under judicial oversight while it reorganizes or liquidates its assets.
This bankruptcy filing was submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey and includes Poolin along with its two U.S. subsidiaries, Lonestar Dream Inc. and Lonestar Taproot LLC. Court records indicate prepetition liabilities exceeding $100 million against assets totaling less than $10 million.
A mining pool enables individual Bitcoin miners to combine their computational power, known as hashrate, allowing the group to earn rewards more frequently than any single miner could achieve on their own.
Established in Beijing in 2017 by Zhibiao "Kevin" Pan, along with co-founders Fa Zhu and Tianzhao Li, all of whom previously worked for mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain, Poolin grew to be among the largest mining pools globally. At its peak, it managed nearly 20% of the total network's hashrate and expanded its services to include crypto lending and interest-bearing accounts through a product known as Poolin Wallet.
Problems began in September 2022 when Poolin halted withdrawals for its Poolin Wallet and Pool Account users. At that time, the firm cited "liquidity issues" stemming from a surge in withdrawal demands during a broader downturn in the crypto market. Instead of reimbursing customers, Poolin issued IOU tokens as temporary substitutes for actual Bitcoin, which were never redeemed.
The unpaid IOUs now represent the most significant liability in the bankruptcy proceedings. Approximately 11,700 wallet holders are owed $163.7 million, as detailed in a court declaration by Chief Restructuring Officer Michael DuFrayne. The mining and hosting operations in Texas, managed by Lonestar Dream, ceased operations entirely on July 10, with no plans to resume.
To settle its debts, Poolin is auctioning its two West Texas facilities, with Thor CALAP LLC placing a $52 million stalking-horse bid. This initial offer sets the minimum price that other bidders must exceed in a court-supervised sale. However, this amount only addresses the physical mining equipment and does not account for the frozen wallet balances, which fall short of what is owed to users. The Texas operations have incurred approximately $45.9 million in losses since their inception, in addition to $8.8 million from selling equipment at reduced prices during fiscal years 2023 to 2025.
The potential recovery for the 11,700 holders of IOUs now hinges significantly on the outcome of the Texas auction, occurring more than three years after their withdrawal requests were first frozen.