Poolin, once the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 22 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. The Singapore-based company, along with its U.S. affiliates Lonestar Dream Inc. and Lonestar Taproot LLC, is seeking to sell its West Texas mining sites and wind down operations.
The petition estimates between 10,001 and 25,000 creditors, with assets of $1 million to $10 million and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million. Chief restructuring officer Michael DuFrayne stated the debtors’ prepetition obligations total approximately $173.1 million, of which roughly $163.7 million consists of unsecured IOUs issued to Poolin Wallet customers after withdrawals were suspended during the 2022 crypto downturn.
The bankruptcy is structured for a court-supervised sale. Stalking-horse bidder Thor CALAP LLC has offered $15 million for the Pyote property and $37 million for the Tarbush property’s power rights and equipment—a combined $52 million floor bid under Section 363. The marketing process contacted over 335 potential buyers (including AI/HPC operators and private equity firms), yielding 28 non-disclosure agreements and seven letters of intent.
Poolin, founded in China in 2017, became the largest mining pool by September 2019. Its Poolin Wallet let users borrow USDT against crypto collateral. After China’s mining ban and the 2022 market crash, collateral was transferred to Antalpha Technologies, which lent about $213 million. Withdrawals were halted in September 2022, leaving ~11,700 customers with IOU tokens, and Antalpha liquidated the collateral that November. Separately, the Texas expansion suffered from a power allocation shortfall—only 100 MW received instead of the expected 600 MW—forcing a loss of $8.8 million on over-purchased equipment. A proposed $49 million sale to China Green Agriculture in December 2023 never closed. The debtors expect the auction to generate some recovery for unsecured creditors who have waited nearly four years since their funds were frozen.
