Former Top Bitcoin Mining Pool Poolin Files for Chapter 11 in US

Poolin, once the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, has entered bankruptcy proceedings.

CoinDesk reported on July 24 that Singapore-based Bitcoin miner Poolin, along with its US subsidiaries Lone Star Dream and Lone Star Taproot, filed for Chapter 11 protection in a New Jersey court on July 22. The company listed about $173 million in debt, with estimated total liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.

Thor CALAP LLC has submitted a $52 million bid to acquire two Poolin-owned mining facilities in western Texas. The facilities are reported to be the core of Poolin’s assets.

Poolin accounted for 18% to 20% of global Bitcoin hash rate around 2019, making it the world’s largest single mining pool at the time, according to data from on-chain analytics platform Glassnode.

The downturn began in 2022. As the crypto market slump worsened later that year, Poolin users began complaining on Telegram about delayed withdrawals. Co-founder Kevin Pan wrote in a WeChat post at the time that the company was facing liquidity problems, while insisting user funds were safe. In September 2022, Poolin Wallet suspended withdrawals entirely and issued $163.7 million of IOU tokens to about 11,700 customers.

A plan to rebuild the business through an expansion of its Texas mining facilities also collapsed after approval for a power-grid connection was delayed. Poolin’s share of global hash rate is now effectively near zero.