Poolin Chapter 11 Filing Targets $52M Texas Site Sale

Three entities filed together. They are Singapore parent Poolin Technology PTE. LTD and its two U.S. affiliates, Lonestar Dream Inc. and Lonestar Taproot LLC. The Poolin Chapter 11 cases now sit before Bankruptcy Judge Eamonn James O’Hagan.

What the Poolin Chapter 11 Filing Covers

The lead case is numbered 3:26-bk-18325, with two related cases seeking joint administration. The Singapore parent lists an address at 14 Robinson Road in the Far East Finance Building. According to the filings, the debtors estimate assets of $1 million to $10 million against liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.

That gap is stark. Prepetition obligations total roughly $173.1 million, per the declaration from Chief Restructuring Officer Michael DuFrayne. Meanwhile the creditor count sits between 10,001 and 25,000.

The debtors want a fast exit. So they plan to sell substantially all assets through a Section 363 auction, subject to court approval. Petitions are posted on the Verita Global claims-agent site.

A $52 Million Stalking-Horse Bid for Texas

A stalking-horse bidder named Thor CALAP LLC set the floor. It signed two separate asset-purchase agreements for Poolin’s West Texas operations.

The first offer is $15 million for the Pyote site in Ward County, Texas. The second is $37 million for Tarbush site assets in Pecos County, Texas. Together they form a combined $52 million opening bid.

A stalking-horse bid works as a pre-arranged floor price for a bankruptcy auction. Rival bidders must then top it with higher or better terms. As a result, the two Texas sites could still sell separately or to another buyer.

The marketing process was broad. According to court filings, advisers contacted more than 335 parties, signed 28 non-disclosure agreements, and collected 7 letters of intent. Operations at the Texas sites halted on July 10, 2026.

The $163.7 Million Wallet IOUs at the Center

Most of the debt traces back to 2022, not to mining. Roughly $163.7 million of the obligations are unsecured IOUs owed to Poolin Wallet customers.

Poolin Wallet suspended withdrawals around September 5, 2022. In place of balances, the company issued IOU tokens covering assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDT. About 11,700 holders with balances above $100 received them.

The filings list the IOUs at $163,723,500. The remaining unsecured debt is smaller. It includes about $4.5 million in other unsecured claims, a shareholder loan near $4.3 million, and roughly $450,000 in trade claims.

For those wallet holders, the Poolin Chapter 11 case formalizes a four-year-old failure. Their recovery now depends on the auction and the eventual court-approved plan.

From No. 1 Mining Pool to $1 Million in Assets

Kevin Pan, Fa Zhu, and Tianzhao Li founded Poolin in China in November 2017. By 2019, it ranked as the No. 1 Bitcoin mining pool by hashrate, with an estimated market share above 15%.

Then the pressure mounted. China banned Bitcoin mining in May 2021, so Poolin planned a move to West Texas. In mid-2022, it borrowed about $213 million from Antalpha against roughly $355.8 million of crypto collateral.

The 2022 downturn broke that setup. After the wallet freeze, lender Antalpha liquidated the collateral, and operations largely stopped. The U.S. sites then ran at a loss for years, with roughly $45.9 million in cumulative losses across the two affiliates.

The decline was steep. Today Poolin’s hashrate share sits near 0.2%, according to industry trackers, down from its peak dominance. So the network impact of this filing is negligible.

Why the Power, Not the Mining, Holds the Value

The residual value looks less like a mining business now. Instead, it centers on land, power rights, and grid interconnection in West Texas.

The Texas sites launched with limited power, around 100 MW, below the capacity Poolin had hoped for. Even so, the net book value of Lonestar Taproot’s equipment was about $41.7 million in May 2026.

Analysts note that such substations and interconnect rights now attract AI and high-performance computing demand. So the same electricity that once powered Bitcoin rigs could soon feed data centers. Reporting from TheEnergyMag framed the sites as power plays first.

What Comes Next for Poolin Creditors

The auction outcome remains open. No creditor objections appear in the public docket yet, since first-day motions are still pending, and the filing is only days old.

Several questions stay unresolved. They include the final sale price, the identity and intent of any ultimate buyer, and the exact recovery percentage for IOU creditors. That recovery could hinge on net proceeds after costs and priority claims.

For now, the case reads as a value-maximizing sale of legacy assets. Coverage from the PACER Monitor docket and outlets such as The Block will track each bid. Poolin holders should watch the sale hearing dates closely.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decision.