Shifting Bitcoin hashrate dominance and wind power energization

The pool market data

Foundry USA controls 26.72% of the Bitcoin network hashrate with 287 EH/s. This US-based, institutional-grade pool uses an FPPS payout mode and maintains SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 1 Type 2 accreditation. Antpool holds the second position with 218 EH/s, which is 20.3% of the market. Bitmain operates Antpool and provides it alongside its ASIC product line. Miners select FPPS at 2.5% or PPLNS at 0% when using Antpool. F2Pool holds 16.05% of the network with 172.4 EH/s. It uses FPPS at 4% or PPLNS at 2%. ViaBTC controls 9.07% of the network with 97.4 EH/s. SpiderPool holds 6.52% with 70 EH/s. Luxor controls 3.97% of the network with 42.6 EH/s. Braiins holds 1.51% with 16.2 EH/s. Ocean holds 2.93% with 31.4 EH/s and uses the TIDES payout system. The industry shifted when the Chinese government launched a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading in late May. That crackdown caused China’s hashrate to fall from 44% in May to zero by July. The United States now accounts for 35.4% of the global hashrate as of the end of August.

Pool	Hashrate Share	Payout Method
Foundry USA	26.72%	FPPS
Antpool	20.3%	FPPS
F2Pool	16.05%	FPPS/PPLNS
ViaBTC	9.07%	PPS+/PPLNS
SpiderPool	6.52%	FPPS
Luxor	3.97%	FPPS
Ocean	2.93%	TIDES

The Inner Mongolia wind energization

The Xinglong 200 megawatt wind power project in Hexigten Banner, Chifeng City, now connects to the grid. This project includes 20 turbines with 10 MW capacity each. This setup sets a record for commercial onshore wind turbine power in China. Each turbine blade measures 107 meters long. The rotor diameter reaches 220 meters. The swept area covers 38,000 square meters, an area equal to five standard football fields. This project generates 590 million kWh of clean electricity annually. This electricity reduces standard coal consumption by 168,900 tons and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 463,900 tons. This output supports the 15 EH/s Inner Mongolia wind farm energization this month. The project team optimized the turbine layout to minimize wake effects and overcome land constraints. They also developed anti-overturning foundation designs to manage large turbine loads. The project uses smart operation and maintenance systems for remote monitoring and fault detection.

The corporate pivot to AI

The mining landscape changed in 2026. Publicly-traded miners like Hut 8, Core Scientific, IREN, TeraWulf, CleanSpark, Cipher, and Riot redirected power and real estate to AI and high-performance compute infrastructure. These companies could derive up to 70% of their revenue from AI by December 2026, according to CoinShares’ Q1 2026 reporting. This movement follows more than $70 billion in cumulative AI/HPC contracts announced between March and May 2026. The global network hashashrate slid from a peak near 1,160 EH/s in October 2025 to roughly 960 – 1,000 EH/s by early 2026. The network logged three consecutive negative difficulty adjustments in late 2025. When corporations leave mining for AI, they reuse substations, transformers, switchgear, and cooling loops. The actual mining silicon gets racked elsewhere, resold, or retired. The shift toward AI infrastructure allows corporations to utilize existing substations, transformers, switchgear, and cooling loops while they sell off their aging SHA-256 ASIC hardware to the secondary market. I view the retreat of corporate hashrate as a mechanism that increases decentralization. As the total denominator of hashrate shrinks, every remaining miner’s slice grows.

The pool consolidation and hardware markets

The pool market is consolidating around the largest players. Binance Pool will close on November 10, 2026, at 7:00 UTC. Its hashashrate dropped from 26 EH/s in December to 9.2 EH/s, a 65% decline. The exchange cited an ongoing review of products and services as the reason for the closure. After the cutoff, Binance stops crediting mining shares. Poolin filed for bankruptcy in July after owing $173 million. These shifts leave the network in the hands of the largest operators. Foundry USA, Antpool, and F2Pool together represent 64.2% of the network according to Hashrate Index. This concentration differs from the era when exchange-led pools dominated. I find the decline of exchange-based pools like Binance and the bankruptcy of Poolin to be a sign of a maturing industry. The used market for hardware like the S19-class machine becomes a vital entry point for individuals. If you want to mine at home, you should buy from a company that tests and repairs hardware. The S19 can be a liability in a $0.07/kWh data center for a corporation, but it remains a viable option for a home miner with surplus power. Can the network survive this level of concentration among the top three pools?