Major Bitcoin mining pool Poolin freezes withdrawals citing liquidity issues

Poolin, one of the world’s major crypto mining pools, has suspended Bitcoin and Ether withdrawals citing “liquidity problems.” Poolin CEO and founder Kevin Pan assured users that funds are safe and said the company might look to debt to solve its liquidity troubles.

“As you may have known, Poolin Wallet is currently facing some liquidity problems due to recent increasing demands on withdrawals. But please be assured, all user assets are safe and the company’s net worth is positive,” the firm said on Sept.5 in an announcement.

Poolin said that it would “make a snapshot of the remaining BTC and ETH balances on pool on Sept. 6 to work out the balances.”

According to messages on official Poolin Telegram support channels, its users have been complaining about issues with withdrawals from their wallets since at least August.

As CoinDesk reported, Poolin CEO and founder Kevin Pan acknowledged in a post on his WeChat Moments on Sept. 4 that the company is lacking liquidity, but said user assets are safe. Pan wrote that the company’s net worth is still positive and that there will soon be a plan as to how to deal with the issues, according to a screenshot of the post. The plan might involve taking on debt backed by equity or machines, he said.

Meanwhile, a message posted to the pool’s Chinese Telegram account sought to reassure customers and dispel rumors of a rug pull. The mining pool and wallet operate independently and long waiting times for withdrawals are due to risk management, the post said, cautioning users not to listen to rumors of rug pull.

Previously, customer service representatives on Telegram would usually tell users to wait and try to address individual complaints regarding withdrawal delays.

On Sept.5, one customer representative said that the company is “facing some financial issues” which have made withdrawals more difficult.

“It’s hard to name a specific date. As the problem is being fixed, more and more transactions will be made successfully, some would be made today or tomorrow, and some of them may need to wait for few days,” he said when asked about the date to expect funds.

In August, the mining pool told CoinDesk that it has been facing delays in the buildout of a mega-bitcoin mine in Texas. Miners in the state have been waiting for their applications to connect to the grid to be approved.

According to BTC.com data, Poolin ranked 4th by the number of Bitcoin transaction blocks in the past 24 hours.