Hut 8’s selected bid for Poolin’s two Texas sites has cleared one challenge before the sale hearing. The remaining dispute turns on the difference between a higher headline price and a transaction that can close.
One challenge to Hut 8’s $140 million bid for Poolin’s assets has been withdrawn a day before the sale hearing. In a notice filed on September 28, Digipower X withdrew its challenge to Hut 8 being designated the successful bidder for the Pyote assets in Texas and to the proposed sale of those assets. The notice gives no reason for the withdrawal.
The combined bid for bankrupt Bitcoin miner Poolin’s Pyote and Tarbush sites was named the winner in an amended auction notice dated September 23. Agreement between the companies does not replace court approval. The sale hearing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey is scheduled for September 29 at 11 a.m. Eastern time.
One withdrawal does not resolve the sale dispute. Digipower’s notice concerns the Pyote assets. The September 28 hearing agenda still lists the sale as a contested matter, with objections from other parties, including Thor CALAP and Pecos Industrial Development, remaining on the docket.
Why did a $180 million bid give way to $140 million?
The selected bid was not the highest number announced at the auction. According to Poolin chief restructuring officer Michael DuFrayne’s September 23 declaration, Thor’s $180 million bid led at the end of the September 10 auction. Negotiations over the purchase agreements then failed to produce an agreement acceptable to the debtors, who returned to talks with Hut 8.
DuFrayne says the parties could not agree on a larger deposit, energy-approval provisions and a revised closing date. He argues that Hut 8 offered greater certainty of completion for creditors:
“The amount of the bid is not the only driver in this case of the value of the bid.”
Thor gives a competing account in its objection. It argues that the debtors sought material changes to the agreements and an increased deposit after declaring it the winner, contrary to the bidding procedures. Whether the $140 million selection was justified is therefore part of the dispute before the court, rather than a question settled by comparing the headline prices.
Hut 8 adds financing capacity on the same day
Separately, Hut 8 announced a $1.07 billion, four-year secured revolving credit facility on September 28. The company said the facility, which can be drawn as needed, would support working capital and collateral requirements for site development. The announcement does not earmark the facility for Poolin or say the full amount has been borrowed.
For companies in the Bitcoin mining sector, access to electricity and the cost of capital matter together. Our analysis of mining economics examines how those costs affect operating sustainability. In the Poolin case, the immediate decision concerns the terms on which an asset sale might be approved; it does not establish that new computing capacity is already online.
