Poolin was bitcoin’s biggest mining pool and now it’s filing for bankruptcy

Bitcoin mining company Poolin has filed for bankruptcy alongside its two U.S. affiliates Lonestar Dream and Lonestar Taproot with estimated liabilities between $100 million-$500 million, TheEnergyMag reported on Friday.

The Singapore-based firm, which once dominated the industry, filed for Chapter 11 protection in New Jersey on July 22 with debts of around $173 million,

A $52 million bid for two mining sites in West Texas is currently on the table from Thor CALAP LLC. The sites represent the better part of the company’s assets.

Poolin was one of the biggest mining pools in bitcoin at its peak meaning more bitcoin was being mined through Poolin than through any other single pool on earth. Glassnode data shows its share of global hashrate reached roughly 18-20% in 2019.

Users were already complaining about withdrawal delays on Poolin’s Telegram channels in late 2022, a period plagued by crypto companies facing liquidity squeezes as that year’s market downturn came to a head. Co-founder Kevin Pan acknowledged in a WeChat post that the company was “facing liquidity problems” while insisting user funds were safe.

The Texas mining expansion Pan had bet on to rebuild the business was itself stalled, with grid connection approvals delayed.

Within weeks, Poolin Wallet suspended withdrawals entirely in September 2022, issuing approximately $163.7 million in IOU tokens to around 11,700 customers, which bought the company some time.

Poolin’s estimated hashrate share has been effectively zero for a number of years.

Poolin did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.