Singapore-based Bitcoin mining company Poulin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey on July 22, along with its U.S. affiliates Lonestar Dream Inc. and Lonestar Taproot LLC. The company is also seeking court approval to sell its Texas mining assets for $52 million.
The bankruptcy filing comes nearly four years after Pullin froze customer withdrawals and left thousands of wallet users with IOU tokens, turning a failed mining operation into a long-running creditor dispute.
Poulin enters Chapter 11 with $173 million in debt
According to court records filed in New Jersey’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Poulin lists between 11,000 and 25,000 creditors and has claimed assets estimated at between $1 million and $10 million.
Chief Structural Officer Michael Dufresne’s declaration sets pre-petition obligations at approximately $173.1 million, of which approximately $163.7 million is associated with unsecured debt securities issued to Poulin Wallet customers.
The company’s current bankruptcy case focuses on selling its Texas assets rather than restructuring its mining operations. Lonestar Dream ceased mining and hosting activities on the Pyote and Tarbush sites on July 10, according to the filing.
Mr. Poulin entered into an asset purchase agreement with Thor CALAP LLC in a stalking horse bid totaling $52 million. The offer includes $15 million for the Pyote property and associated power rights and equipment, and an additional $37 million for power rights and equipment in Terbush. The transaction remains subject to competitive bidding and court approval.
The company spent more than three months marketing the asset and contacted more than 335 potential buyers, including cryptocurrency miners, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing operators. This process resulted in the signing of 28 nondisclosure agreements, seven letters of intent, and three additional expressions of interest.
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Expansion in Texas suffered after Poulin moved its mining operations from China after the Chinese government banned mining in 2021. The company was scheduled to receive up to 600 megawatts of power, but only 100 megawatts became available. This meant that the equipment the company purchased for its U.S. operations was more expensive than necessary.
Some of that equipment was sold, resulting in a loss of $8.8 million from fiscal years 2023 to 2025. Ultimately, Lonestar Dream and Lonestar Taproot accumulated losses of approximately $45.9 million.
Poulin wallet collapse remains at the center of creditor claims
Poulin’s financial problems go beyond mining; when Bitcoin fell below $20,000 in June 2022, Tether issued a margin call on the collateral the company had pledged through its Poulin wallet. It subsequently transferred nearly all of that collateral to Antalfa and borrowed approximately $213 million against crypto assets valued at just under $356 million.
However, in September 2022, Poulin Wallet suspended withdrawals and issued approximately $163.7 million worth of IOU tokens to customers, with approximately 11,700 wallet users holding balances of $100 or more, according to the filing.
Bitcoin then fell below $16,800 in November 2022, after which Poulin ceased operations and Antalfa liquidated its collateral. Management estimated that Antalfa owed approximately $260 million on digital assets that were worth nearly $265 million at the time.
Poulin was once one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools, reaching around 14% of the Bitcoin network’s mining share in 2019. But the company’s residual value now depends on the sale of its Texas assets and the outcome of bankruptcy proceedings.
A court-supervised auction will determine how much creditors can recover, with distributions subject to competitive bids, sale costs, administrative claims and approval of a proposed liquidation plan.
