Foundry Digital, the operator behind Bitcoin’s largest mining pool, is expanding beyond BTC — and it’s bringing institutional-style mining to Zcash.
What’s happening
- Foundry said on Wednesday it will launch a Zcash mining pool next month, allowing participants to combine resources to earn the privacy-focused coin. The offering is explicitly aimed at publicly traded companies and financial institutions that often lack the on‑the‑ground infrastructure to run Zcash validators themselves.
Why Foundry is doing it
- CEO Mike Colyer called Zcash “an institutional-grade asset” that plays a “critical role in advancing financial privacy” since its 2016 debut. Foundry says a U.S.-based pool will help reduce compliance and counterparty risk for regulated entities that want exposure to ZEC mining without moving operations offshore.
How this fits with Foundry’s footprint
- Foundry’s Bitcoin pool, Foundry USA, supports roughly 31% of Bitcoin’s hashrate (per Hashrate Index) and mined about 4,150 BTC in the past month — roughly $290 million at recent prices. A company spokesperson told Decrypt the move into Zcash isn’t a reaction to Bitcoin mining profitability. “Foundry's Bitcoin mining business is strong and remains our core foundation,” they said, adding that the expansion reflects “a real gap in the market we are uniquely positioned to fill.”
Product features and support
- Foundry says the Zcash pool will mirror aspects of its Bitcoin operations, including U.S.-based infrastructure, 24/7 technical support, and payout reporting tools designed to be auditable — features that matter to institutions and auditors.
Zcash mining basics and recent network trends
- Like Bitcoin, Zcash uses proof-of-work, but with a different algorithm, so miners need distinct hardware; rigs are measured in Gigasols per second (GSol/s), the metric for potential solutions per block. New Zcash blocks are found roughly every 75 seconds. Since early September, Zcash’s hash rate climbed from 8.1 GSol/s to about 13.8 GSol/s, indicating more computational power is being directed at the network.
Market context and competition
- ZEC traded near $215 on Wednesday (a roughly 4.5% drop over 24 hours), though it’s up more than 600% over the past year (CoinGecko). The current top Zcash pool operator, ViaBTC, controls about 30% of Zcash’s hashrate (PoolBay). Foundry’s entry — backed by its experience and U.S. operations — could meaningfully shift that distribution.
Why it matters
- Foundry’s move signals growing institutional interest in privacy-focused assets and lowers the technical and compliance barriers for regulated players to engage with Zcash. It also highlights a broader trend: mining infrastructure is becoming more professionalized and tailored to institutional needs, not just hobbyists and small-scale miners.
Bottom line
- Foundry’s Zcash pool could accelerate institutional participation in ZEC while reshaping the network’s mining landscape. With U.S.-based support and auditable reporting, the launch targets firms that want exposure to Zcash without taking on offshore operational or regulatory complexity.
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