Poolin Technology Pte. Ltd., the Singapore-based operator once behind one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining pools, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States, laying bare roughly $173.1 million in prepetition obligations against a fraction of that in recoverable assets. The filing, submitted alongside U.S. affiliates Lonestar Dream Inc. and Lonestar Taproot LLC on July 22 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, is structured as a liquidating case rather than an attempt to reorganize and continue operating.
Court documents put Poolin's creditor count between 10,001 and 25,000, with liabilities estimated in the $100 million to $500 million range against total assets of just $1 million to $10 million — including roughly $1.2 million sitting in a New Jersey bank account. A declaration from Chief Restructuring Officer Michael DuFrayne narrows the total prepetition obligations to approximately $173.1 million, a figure that exposes just how thin the company's remaining balance sheet has become relative to what it owes.
A Freeze That Never Thawed
The overwhelming majority of that debt — about $163.7 million — is unsecured, owed to roughly 11,700 customers of Poolin Wallet, a product that let users deposit crypto, borrow USDT against collateral, and earn yield during the market's boom years. When the 2022 crash hit, Poolin suspended withdrawals in September of that year and issued IOU tokens to those customers instead of returning their funds, instantly converting depositors into unsecured creditors of a company that was already unwinding.
That decision traces back to a lending arrangement with Antalpha: Poolin had borrowed about $213 million against crypto collateral once worth $355.8 million and funneled the proceeds into mining equipment. When markets turned, Antalpha liquidated that collateral, leaving thousands of wallet customers holding IOUs with no clear timeline for repayment. A proposed $49 million acquisition by China Green Agriculture, announced in late 2023, was meant to offer a path forward but never closed, leaving restructuring as the only remaining option.
From Global Hashrate Leader to Texas Wind-Down
Poolin's collapse marks a dramatic reversal for a company that, at its peak around 2019 and 2020, commanded close to a fifth of Bitcoin's global hashrate. Founded in Beijing in 2017 by Bitmain veterans Zhibiao "Kevin" Pan, Fa Zhu and Tianzhao Li, the pool became one of the industry's dominant forces before China's 2021 mining ban forced a pivot toward the United States. After evaluating more than 30 potential sites, Poolin settled on the Pyote and Tarbush properties in West Texas in 2021, though the buildout fell well short of ambition — plans for up to 600 megawatts of grid capacity materialized into only about 100 MW in the first phase, and the company ended up selling excess mining equipment at a discount after over-ordering hardware it couldn't power.
Poolin co-founder Kevin Pan wrote in a WeChat post at the time that the company was "facing liquidity problems" while maintaining that user funds were safe.
Related: Once a Top Bitcoin Mining Pool, Poolin Files for Bankruptcy
Those Texas operations ceased activity entirely on July 10, just under two weeks before the bankruptcy filing, and the sites have reportedly lost about $45.9 million since they were established. A three-month marketing process fielded interest from more than 335 potential buyers — including miners, AI operators, hyperscalers and REITs — resulting in 28 signed non-disclosure agreements and seven preliminary offers, according to court filings.
A $52 Million Floor for Two Sites
Out of that process, Poolin has lined up Thor CALAP LLC as the stalking-horse bidder under a Section 363 sale, with agreements totaling $52 million: $15 million for the Pyote property and equipment, and $37 million for the Tarbush power rights and equipment. That combined bid sets a floor for a court-supervised auction but covers barely a third of the $163.7 million owed to wallet holders alone, let alone the full $173.1 million in prepetition obligations — and any proceeds from the Texas sale would flow through the Lonestar affiliates rather than directly into Poolin Technology's wallet-business estate.
Court records also note that several wallet holders have already filed lawsuits against the debtors in both the United States and Singapore, adding another layer of complexity to how recoveries will ultimately be allocated once sale proceeds, liens, and administrative costs are sorted out. As of the filing, Poolin's mining footprint has shrunk to roughly 0.24% of global Bitcoin hashrate, a steep fall from its earlier dominance and far behind current leader Foundry USA, which holds around 26.1%.
What Comes Next
With no reorganization on the table, the Chapter 11 process is essentially administering an orderly liquidation: selling what physical infrastructure remains and distributing whatever proceeds materialize among a creditor pool that has waited nearly four years since the original withdrawal freeze. Formal schedules and statements of financial affairs are still to be filed, and no reliable recovery estimate exists for wallet holders until the auction concludes and the court resolves how sale proceeds are split between secured and unsecured claims.
