PoolinWallet, the wallet service for one of Bitcoin's biggest mining pools, has suspended all withdrawals as of Monday. This move was announced via a Medium post from the official PoolinWallet account. In the post they announce they are seeking to preserve assets and stabilize liquidity while continuing to explore strategic alternatives. They go on to assure users that assets are safe and that more communications will be coming within the week. This announcement comes after users have been reporting issues with receiving timely withdrawals from the wallet system.
While PoolinWallet may be struggling to keep liquidity available, it's mining pool has had no issue maintaining hash support. Poolin utilizes a Full Pay Per Share (FPPS) reward model that pays miners for every valid share they contribute to the pool regardless if blocks are found or not. Miners also receive a proportional share of transaction fees collected in this model. This is often the most risky reward method for pool operators as they have to find a block to receive any reward yet still guarantee pay. According to mempool.space's mining pool ranking Poolin accounts for 10.66% of Bitcoin's hash rate.
It seems that Poolin plans to use this advantage to help alleviate some of their liquidity issues. They announced a ZERO fee promotion for clients with 1 BTC in their pool balance or pool account. The promotion is scheduled to start on September 8th and run for twelve months coming to a close in 2023.
PoolinWallet has yet to make a statement about how many bitcoin are currently being held with them. This leaves one to wonder how big of an impact this closure will impact the industry. @DylanLeClair_ has noted that Poolin's Bitcoin wallet currently has 17,600 Bitcoin in it based on Glassnode data.
It will be interesting to watch how this unfolds over the coming year of their new promotion. Will the bait of no mining fees be enough to convince miners to risk further withdrawal suspensions? What further options will Poolin offer to help convince users to contribute hash and Bitcoin to it's services is something only time will be able to tell.
