Foundry Digital has launched a mining pool for privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash, saying it now controls roughly 29.2% of the network’s hashrate through partnerships with several institutional miners. The company, already the largest operator of Bitcoin mining pools, said it built a purpose-built, compliance-oriented Zcash offering and published a Zcash block explorer showing the Foundry Zcash Pool has mined 2,344 blocks since the pool went live earlier this month.
Foundry did not disclose the institutional clients behind its contributed hashrate. Data from Zcashinfo.com indicates Foundry began aggregating hashrate around March 4, about a week before the pool was publicly announced. The firm’s rapid ascent cut into ViaBTC’s previous dominance: ViaBTC’s share of Zcash hashrate fell from about 68.1% on Feb. 27 to roughly 37% at the time of reporting.
Zcash is secured by proof-of-work mining, with blocks produced approximately every 75 seconds. Each block currently awards a subsidy of 1.25 ZEC (about $458 at recent prices). Mining pools combine computing power from commercial miners to secure the blockchain and to smooth reward distribution by reducing variance for individual miners.
Concentration of hashrate among a small number of pools has been raised as a network security concern in the past; Coinbase warned in September 2023 about the risks tied to ViaBTC’s dominance. Foundry’s entrance into Zcash mining has the effect of diversifying pool distribution across the network.
ZEC has been a strong market performer over the past year, gaining roughly 1,050% and jumping about 77.2% in the month following Foundry’s initial announcement. Zcash is currently the fifth-largest proof-of-work token by market capitalization, at about $6.2 billion, behind Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Monero.