<\/p>\n
Foundry\u2019s U.S.\u2011based, compliance\u2011first Zcash pool has already grown to roughly one\u2011third of network hashrate, giving institutional miners a regulated way into privacy coins while stoking fresh centralisation fears.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Foundry Digital, operator of the Foundry USA Bitcoin mining pool, has officially launched an institutional\u2011grade Zcash (ZEC) mining pool that has quickly grown to around 30% of the network\u2019s hashrate, consolidating a significant share of new ZEC issuance under a single U.S.\u2011regulated operator. The Rochester, New York\u2011based firm, which Fortune notes already commands about 31% of global Bitcoin production, is positioning its new pool as the default home for institutional miners seeking exposure to privacy\u2011focused assets without abandoning compliance.finance.<\/p>\n
In a Business Wire release, Foundry said the Zcash pool has seen \u201crapid and sustained hashrate growth reaching ~30% of the current Zcash network hashrate\u201d since it was first announced on March 11, with \u201cmultiple institutional mining customers already onboarded and contributing hashrate.\u201d The company stressed that the pool is \u201cdesigned for professional mining organizations and public companies that require a U.S.-based, compliance-ready partner, including KYC verification in line with Foundry\u2019s institutional standards,\u201d mirroring the governance of its Bitcoin operation.<\/p>\n
Foundry CEO Mike Colyer framed the move as both a bet on Zcash and a response to unmet institutional demand. \u201cZcash has matured into an institutional\u2011grade asset, but the mining infrastructure supporting it hasn\u2019t kept pace,\u201d he said, adding that the new pool is \u201cpurpose\u2011built for the operational and compliance requirements of institutional and public miners.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A CoinMarketCap summary of the launch notes that the pool will offer know\u2011your\u2011customer and anti\u2011money\u2011laundering checks, transparent payout calculations, reporting tools and 24\/7 technical support, with no minimum hashrate required to join.<\/p>\n
Zcash, launched in 2016, relies on zero\u2011knowledge proofs (zk\u2011SNARKs) to enable shielded transactions that hide sender, receiver and amount while still allowing selective disclosure to auditors or regulators. Foundry and several commentators have argued that this \u201cprivacy with a view key\u201d model is more compatible with institutional compliance than fully opaque systems like Monero, which lack native mechanisms for selective transparency.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the arrival of a U.S. pool with roughly one\u2011third of Zcash\u2019s hashrate raises familiar centralisation questions. Unfolded and other mining trackers have previously highlighted that Foundry USA already coordinates about 30% of Bitcoin\u2019s global hashrate, and Mempool.space data shows the pool averaging more than 340 exahashes per second on Bitcoin alone. Adding a Zcash operation that quickly captures around one\u2011third of ZEC issuance further concentrates influence over block production in a single corporate group, albeit one that stresses its role in \u201ccontribut[ing] to the decentralization of Bitcoin\u2019s hashrate\u201d by anchoring North American capacity.<\/p>\n
For Zcash, the trade\u2011off is stark: institutional capital and hashpower are flowing in through a U.S.\u2011regulated gateway that validates the project\u2019s positioning as a compliant privacy coin, but at the cost of a more concentrated mining landscape. As regulators in the U.S., EU and Hong Kong tighten their grip on stablecoins, exchanges and tokenized assets \u2014 a trend explored in recent crypto.news coverage of HKDAP\u2019s launch, MiCA implementation and the CLARITY Act \u2014 Zcash\u2019s bet is that privacy with selective disclosure, plus a mining pool built for auditors rather than cypherpunks, is a price worth paying for long\u2011term relevance.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Foundry\u2019s U.S.\u2011based, compliance\u2011first Zcash pool has already grown to roughly one\u2011third of network hashrate, giving institutional miners a regulated way into privacy coins while stoking fresh centralisation fears. Summary Bitcoin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25772,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25771\/revisions\/25772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}