Hut 8 wins $140M auction for Poolin’s two Texas data centers

Hut 8 won the auction for two Poolin data-center sites in Texas with a $140 million offer, far above the combined $52 million stalking-horse bids that opened the process. The winning bid covers Poolin’s Pyote and Tarbush locations and reflects rising valuations for sites with strong power access and AI-compute potential, not just Bitcoin mining capacity. The transaction is pending approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey at a hearing on September 29. Poolin filed for Chapter 11 in July with about $173 million in obligations, including IOUs to Poolin Wallet users after 2022 withdrawal freezes. Competing bidders included DigiPower X and Pecos Industrial Development, designated by AI infrastructure firm Fluidstack. Hut 8’s strategy aligns with a shift from pure Bitcoin mining toward large-scale data-center and AI infrastructure, with power availability as a key asset.