Poolin’s Chapter 11 filing has turned a four-year dispute over frozen customer balances into a $164 million unsecured-creditor claim, leaving thousands of former wallet users behind secured lenders in the company’s U.S. restructuring process.
Poolin, the Singapore-headquartered crypto mining pool operator, and affiliated entities sought bankruptcy protection on July 22 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. The court filings list about $173 million in total liabilities, including roughly $164 million connected to platform-issued IOUs that replaced customer Bitcoin, Ether and USDT balances after withdrawals were suspended in September 2022.
The filing places the long-running collapse of Poolin’s wallet service alongside the company’s mining expansion and borrowing activity. According to the bankruptcy documents, assets associated with wallet users were pledged as collateral for third-party financing, including loans from Antalpha. When crypto prices fell and lenders demanded additional collateral, the pledged assets were liquidated after the company could not meet the margin calls, widening the gap in the wallet pool.
Court papers identify 11,700 holders of IOUs with claims valued at approximately $163.7 million. Their claims are listed as unsecured, meaning they rank below secured creditors in any distribution of recoveries from the bankruptcy estate.
Frozen balances became tradable promises
Poolin’s wallet problems began after users reported withdrawal delays from September 2, 2022. On September 5, the company announced a halt to wallet withdrawals, swaps and internal transfers, citing liquidity difficulties.
The suspension was later formalized through an IOU conversion plan. Customer balances in BTC, ETH and USDT were replaced on a 1:1 basis with internal tokens including IOUBTC and IOUUSDT. Poolin proposed quarterly buybacks at par value and allowed users to apply the IOUs against mining-pool fees. It also referred to the possibility of on-chain trading for the tokens.
That structure gave customers a claim on future repayment rather than immediate control of the underlying cryptoassets. Secondary-market liquidity for the IOU tokens failed to emerge, leaving holders dependent on Poolin’s ability to honor buybacks or otherwise restore their balances.
By the fourth quarter of 2022, falling crypto prices and tightening liquidity had already disrupted the planned repayment timetable. Users formed Telegram groups to coordinate claims, while a group of larger account holders pursued emergency arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, seeking the return of frozen assets.
The Chapter 11 schedules now frame those balances as liabilities arising from the withdrawal freeze and subsequent IOU program. The filings do not describe a trust or custody arrangement that separated wallet assets from Poolin’s corporate balance sheet.
Mining expansion tied up borrowed funds
The bankruptcy documents link the company’s funding shortfall to its push to expand mining operations in Texas. Poolin borrowed against wallet-user assets and directed financing toward construction of a large mining facility and purchases of mining equipment, according to the filings.
Construction delays and an insufficient allocation of local power tied up capital intended for the project. That exposure became more severe as the 2022 market downturn reduced the value of pledged crypto collateral.
Margin calls from lenders required Poolin to provide additional collateral. Once the company could not do so, the lenders liquidated pledged assets, according to the court papers. The liquidations left Poolin with fewer assets available to meet obligations to wallet users whose balances had already been converted into IOUs.
The case illustrates the practical consequences of commingling customer assets with operating and financing activities. When a platform uses assets associated with user balances as collateral, a lender with a secured claim can gain priority over the users whose deposits helped support that financing. Account terms, asset ownership and applicable law can affect that outcome, but Poolin’s Chapter 11 schedules place IOU holders in the unsecured category.
Asset sale is the immediate focus
The restructuring is aimed at selling assets rather than restoring Poolin as an operating mining business. Restructuring officer DuFrayne said the immediate objective is to dispose of the company’s physical equipment and related holdings.
Thor CALAP LLC has submitted a $52 million minimum bid for two Texas land sites, according to the materials cited in the case. The bid establishes an early benchmark for assets that had been intended to support Poolin’s mining expansion, though the ultimate value available to creditors will depend on the broader sale process, administrative costs and the priority of other claims.
For IOU holders, the distinction between the nominal value of their original balances and their legal position in the bankruptcy case will shape any recovery. Their claims total nearly all of Poolin’s reported liabilities, but unsecured status means repayment depends on what remains after secured obligations and bankruptcy expenses are addressed.
The filing also brings renewed scrutiny to mining-pool and wallet platforms that combined customer-facing services with proprietary borrowing and infrastructure spending. Poolin’s users did not simply face a service interruption in 2022; their balances were transformed into debt claims that are now being handled through a U.S. bankruptcy court.
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