Rapid expansion of Foundry USA in the BTC mining market, over 50% share of top 2 pools

Concentrate on major pools

Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) mining pool Foundry USA has been growing its share of global Bitcoin hashrate in recent weeks. In addition, the hash rate share of the top large pools is also on the rise.

Source: Mempool

According to Mempool data, it continues to hold the top spot with around 32% share of the entire Bitcoin network over the past month. Over the past year, the share has been about 24%, and we can see that it has grown further in the last few weeks.

Antpool is in second place, accounting for about 19% of the total hashrate over the past month. Since then, F2 Pool has accounted for about 15%, Binance Pool for about 11%, and ViaBTC for about 9% over the same period.

These top five mining pools account for over 80% of the total hashrate. By early 2022, it will be around 60%, indicating that Bitcoin mining is becoming more centralized.

Behind this is the superiority of large mining pools. A large mining pool can distribute profits stably to its participants, thereby attracting more miners.

If more than half of the network has collusion with malicious miners, it is theoretically possible to conduct a “51% attack” that fraudulently falsifies transactions, but the economic disincentive is very strong and it is said to be unrealistic.

Especially now, the difficulty of mining is increasing along with the rising trend of Bitcoin price, and in a situation where more computing power is required to mine the same amount, the larger the pool, the more advantageous it is. .

Expansion of Foundry USA

Foundry USA, which ranks first, is also known as a mining pool operated by Foundry, a mining subsidiary owned by the Digital Currency Group (DCG), a major US crypto asset (virtual currency) conglomerate.

In May 2021, after China announced a total ban on cryptocurrencies and a policy of banning mining, some miners moved overseas, including the United States, and more miners joined Foundry USA. Since then, the hashrate share of the pool has been on a significant upward trend.

Relation: Foundry, a subsidiary of DCG in the US, officially launches a large-scale cryptocurrency mining pool in North America

In November 2022, it announced that it would acquire the facilities of Compute North, a US cryptocurrency mining company that had filed for bankruptcy. It will take over facilities in South Dakota, Texas, and Nebraska, as well as a set of mining machines. This is also believed to contribute to the expansion of the hash rate.

Relation: To acquire Compute North, a subsidiary of US virtual currency investment giant DCG

Parent company DCG liquidity problem

Meanwhile, Foundry’s parent company, DCG, is facing liquidity problems. Finances deteriorated due to the collapse of the old Terra ecosystem and the bankruptcy of FTX in 2022. It is also taking over the debt of approximately 141 billion yen incurred by its subsidiary Genesis due to the bankruptcy of Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

Genesis just announced on the 19th that it filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. Regarding the business revitalization plan, we are considering two aspects of fundraising and business sales, and we are also considering restarting the business under a new owner.

Relation: DCG, a major virtual currency with liquidity problems, explains points about the impact on the market

Relation: Virtual currency lending company Genesis filed for bankruptcy, creditors such as Gemini and Van Eck

Foundry said Tuesday that it will not be affected by the Genesis bankruptcy filing.

3/ Foundry USA Pool maintains its strong position and we continue to make payouts daily. We do not hold any mining earnings in Genesis accounts.

—Foundry (@FoundryServices) January 20, 2023

The post Rapid expansion of Foundry USA in the BTC mining market, over 50% share of top 2 pools appeared first on Our Bitcoin News.