Poolin Was Once the Biggest Bitcoin Mining Pool on Earth and Now It Owes 173 Million It Cannot Pay

Poolin, once the largest bitcoin mining pool on the planet, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New Jersey court, leaving nearly 12,000 customers holding 163.7 million USD in frozen funds and marking one of the most spectacular collapses in the history of crypto mining.

By Michael Nguyen | July 25, 2026

The Hook: From King of the Hill to Bankruptcy Court

At its peak in 2019, Poolin controlled roughly 18 to 20 percent of the entire global bitcoin hashrate, according to Glassnode data cited by CoinDesk. That means nearly one in every five bitcoins mined worldwide was processed through Poolin’s infrastructure. The Singapore-based company was not just a participant in the mining industry — it was the dominant force.

On July 22, 2026, Poolin and its two United States affiliates, Lonestar Dream and Lonestar Taproot, filed for Chapter 11 protection with estimated liabilities between 100 million and 500 million USD. The filing, first reported by TheEnergyMag, confirms what industry observers had suspected for years: the company that once ruled bitcoin mining has been effectively dead in the water since a devastating liquidity crisis in 2022.

Think of a mining pool as a cooperative farm. Individual miners contribute their computing power to a shared operation, and the rewards are split proportionally. Poolin was the biggest farm around — and when it collapsed, thousands of small farmers were left holding worthless IOUs instead of their share of the harvest.

On-Chain Evidence: The Long, Slow Decline

The end did not come suddenly. Users began complaining about withdrawal delays on Poolin’s Telegram channels as early as late 2022, a period when the entire crypto industry was reeling from a brutal market downturn. Co-founder Kevin Pan acknowledged in a WeChat post that the company was what he called facing liquidity problems, while insisting that user funds were safe. They were not.

Within weeks of those assurances, Poolin Wallet suspended withdrawals entirely in September 2022. Rather than returning funds, the company issued approximately 163.7 million USD worth of IOU tokens to around 11,700 customers. These tokens — essentially digital promises to repay — bought the company time but gave users nothing they could actually spend or sell at full value.

The Texas mining expansion that Pan had bet the company’s recovery on never materialized as planned. Grid connection approvals for Poolin’s West Texas mining sites were delayed, stranding the hardware and leaving the company without the revenue stream it needed to make users whole. Poolin’s share of global hashrate has been effectively zero for several years now, according to blockchain data.

• Peak in 2019 — 18 to 20 percent of global bitcoin hashrate, making Poolin the largest mining pool in the world
• September 2022 — Poolin Wallet suspends withdrawals, issues 163.7 million USD in IOU tokens to 11,700 users
• Estimated liabilities — between 100 million and 500 million USD, with approximately 173 million USD owed to creditors
• Recovery offer — Thor CALAP LLC has bid 52 million USD for Poolin’s two West Texas mining sites
• Current hashrate share — effectively zero

The Core Conflict: What Happens to the Miners Left Behind

The human cost of Poolin’s collapse is staggering. 11,700 individual miners were issued IOU tokens instead of their actual bitcoin earnings. Some of these users were small operators who relied on mining income to pay electricity bills and equipment leases. Others were larger operations with significant capital tied up in Poolin’s infrastructure. All of them have been waiting years for a resolution that may never fully come.

The bankruptcy filing offers a grim picture of what recovery looks like. Creditors are owed approximately 173 million USD, according to court documents. The only meaningful asset on the table is a 52 million USD bid from Thor CALAP LLC for Poolin’s two West Texas mining sites. Even if that bid is accepted at full value, it covers less than a third of what is owed.

This is the reality of counterparty risk in crypto mining. When you join a mining pool, you trust that pool to accurately track your contributions and pay out your share. There is no deposit insurance, no Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation equivalent, no regulatory backstop. If the pool mismanages its finances — or simply loses your money — your only recourse is a bankruptcy court that may return pennies on the dollar years later.

Market Implications: A Cautionary Tale for Centralization

Poolin’s bankruptcy is a powerful reminder of a paradox at the heart of bitcoin mining. Bitcoin itself was designed to be decentralized — no single entity should control the network. But mining pools, which aggregate computing power to smooth out rewards, naturally concentrate power in the hands of a few operators. When one of those operators fails, the fallout is concentrated too.

The industry has already absorbed Poolin’s disappearance. With its hashrate share at zero for years, no one relying on Poolin for mining revenue has been actively earning. The bankruptcy formalizes what was already reality. But the 11,700 creditors holding IOU tokens are a live problem, and their treatment in bankruptcy court will set a precedent for how future mining pool failures are handled.

For individual miners choosing a pool today, the lesson is clear. The largest pool is not necessarily the safest. What matters is transparency — can you verify that the pool is actually holding your funds? — and operational maturity. Smaller, well-managed pools that publish regular audits may be less flashy than industry giants, but they are less likely to leave you holding worthless tokens when things go wrong.

Bitcoin is currently trading near 64,101 USD, according to CoinGecko data, with the network’s total hashrate distributed across several major pools including Foundry USA, AntPool, and ViaBTC. None of today’s leading pools has the kind of single-entity dominance that Poolin once enjoyed, which is arguably a healthy sign for the network’s long-term resilience.

The Verdict: Trust but Verify, or Do Not Trust at All

The Poolin saga spans four years from peak to bankruptcy filing, and it will likely take several more years for the bankruptcy proceedings to wind through court. For the 11,700 customers still waiting, the Thor CALAP bid represents the best — and possibly only — chance at partial recovery.

But the broader lesson extends beyond Poolin. Every time you entrust your computing power, your rewards, or your assets to a third party in crypto, you are taking on counterparty risk. The technology was built to eliminate the need for trusted intermediaries, but the economics of mining pools — and exchanges, and lending platforms — keep pulling users back toward centralization.

The miners who diversified across multiple pools, who withdrew their earnings promptly instead of leaving them in a wallet controlled by someone else, who paid attention to the warning signs in 2022 — those miners survived Poolin’s collapse with their funds intact. The ones who trusted the biggest name in the industry learned an expensive lesson: in crypto, reputation is not collateral, and a promise to repay is not the same as repayment.

The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.