BlockBeats report: On July 22, Poolin Technology Pte. Ltd. of Singapore and its two U.S. subsidiaries, Lonestar Dream and Lonestar Taproot, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, marking one of the most significant institutional collapses in the mining industry in recent years.
Court documents show that Poolin’s liabilities range between $100 million and $500 million, approximately $173.1 million, while its assets are under $10 million; the number of creditors ranges between 10,000 and 25,000. The largest single debt, approximately $163.7 million, involves around 11,700 users of the “Poolin Wallet” — this debt traces back to September 2022, when, following the crypto market crash, Poolin misappropriated user assets for leveraged lending, resulting in liquidation. Subsequently, Poolin froze wallet withdrawals and account access, citing “liquidity issues,” and issued IOU tokens in place of returning actual Bitcoin to users. This debt has remained unpaid for three years.
Poolin was founded in 2017 in Beijing by Kevin Pan, Fa Zhu, and other former Bitmain executives. At its peak in 2019, it controlled approximately 18%-20% of the global hash rate, making it one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools. After the 2021 mining ban, the company relocated its operations to Texas, USA. However, due to a severe shortfall in power allocation—originally expecting 600 MW but receiving only 100 MW—it was forced to sell idle equipment at steep discounts, resulting in approximately $8.8 million in losses between 2023 and 2025. Cumulative losses from its Texas operations reached nearly $45.9 million, and the business was permanently shut down on July 10, with no plans for revival.
The company’s only hope for repaying its debts lies in auctioning off two of its West Texas mining assets. Thor CALAP LLC has submitted a “reserve bid” of $52 million as the opening bid, but this amount is far insufficient to cover the total liabilities of $173 million, and creditors expect to receive only partial repayment.