Foundry Digital, one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools by hashrate, announced plans to launch a Zcash (ZEC) mining pool by next month. This expansion marks a significant entry of a major institutional operator into the privacy-focused cryptocurrency's mining ecosystem.
The new pool aims to address a critical infrastructure gap by offering U.S.-based operations designed around compliance checks, reporting standards, and operational controls required by public companies and large institutions. Foundry CEO Mike Colyer stated, "Zcash has matured into an institutional-grade asset, but the mining infrastructure supporting it hasn't kept pace." He emphasized that institutional and public miners wanting exposure to Zcash have lacked "US-based, compliant, purpose-built infrastructure."
The expansion coincides with renewed market attention on privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. New crypto tax reporting rules and asset seizure threats in the European Union, coupled with advancing on-chain analysis, have increased demand for financial anonymity. Zcash has significantly outperformed peers, surging over 670% in the last 12 months, compared to Monero's (XMR) 72% rise and Dash's (DASH) 51% increase. Analysts attribute ZEC's outperformance to its hybrid privacy model, which allows optional shielded transactions with selective disclosure, making it more compatible with custody and exchange requirements.
Foundry's pool will feature rigorous Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance, transparent payout calculations, reporting tools for institutional users, a dedicated support team, and U.S.-based operations. The company plans to apply the same operational framework used by its Bitcoin pool, which has undergone SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance audits. Mining rewards will be distributed through transparent Zcash addresses (not shielded ones) using a Pay Per Last N Shares (PPLNS) model, which Colyer described as "fully auditable."
While Bitcoin mining profitability has tightened post-2024 halving, with hashprice dropping from over $60 to $30 per petahash, Colyer pushed back on the idea that the move is primarily a response to lower Bitcoin margins. "We evaluate opportunities based on where institutional infrastructure is needed, not on bitcoin margins at any given moment," he said, adding that Foundry's Bitcoin mining business remains strong and its core foundation.
The Zcash network, launched in 2016, uses zero-knowledge proof technology (zk-SNARKs) to enable private transactions on a public blockchain. Like Bitcoin, it relies on proof-of-work mining but uses the Equihash algorithm, which requires large memory during computation. Blocks are produced approximately every 75 seconds, compared to Bitcoin's 10 minutes, but both share a 21 million coin supply cap.
Foundry's entry could reshape the Zcash mining landscape, currently dominated by pools like ViaBTC (commanding 30% hashrate), F2Pool, and 2Miners. The company did not disclose pool fees but stated it will offer "competitive rates" with no minimum hashrate threshold to join, acknowledging the Zcash mining ecosystem is still emerging.
