Foundry USA dominance in the hashrate rebound

Mining power and network shifts

Foundry USA holds 242.3 EH/s, which accounts for 24.93% of the Bitcoin network hashashrate. This dominance puts them ahead of AntPool at 195.8 EH/s and F2Pool at 153 EH/s. The network hashashrate climbed to 915 EH/s in early September, reaching 920 EH/s before stabilizing. I view this recovery as a sign of network resilience. The Bitcoin difficulty sits near 127.45 trillion, following upward moves of about 1.3% that stabilize block intervals close to ten minutes. While the hashrate rises, the total power remains 20% below the October 2025 peak of 1.15 ZH/s. This growth follows a sharp drop earlier in 2026 tied to severe winter storms. During one such event, the hashashrate for Foundry USA fell by 60%, which equals a 200 EH/s decrease. The storm, which traveled about 1,800 miles, brought snow and ice to the Southeastern US, the Northeast, and the Midwest. These conditions caused power outages for more than 1 million residents. The Bitcoin price trades at $77,133. This concentration of power remains high, as the Nakamoto coefficient stays at 3. Public miners contribute substantially, with combined operations from major firms accounting for around 45% of total hashashrate. Leading miners use hydro-cooled hardware that pushes efficiency to 9.5 J/TH.

Payout math and institutional services

Foundry USA uses a Full-Pay-Per-Share (FPPS) payout model. The pool calculates the daily PPS base earnings for every worker in the subaccount by summing the daily PPS base earnings for every worker. This calculation relies on every accepted share that meets the worker difficulty target and avoids stale or rejected data. To find the FPPS rate, the pool calculates a numerator by summing transaction fees per block excluding the highest 3 and lowest 3 observations, while the denominator uses the sum of all block subsidies per block excluding the highest and lowest 3 observations. I find that the transaction fee aspect of the FPPS rate adds a layer of complexity to the daily total. The pool settles all earnings net of pool fees.

The pool credits subaccounts daily at 01:00 UTC. You should know the minimum payout threshold reaches 0.001 BTC. Because Foundry USA acts as a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, it provides equipment financing, colocation, and hosting. I recommend this pool to large operations seeking predictable rewards.

Decentralization and future protocols

The Stratum V2 working group includes Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, MARA Pool, Block Inc, and DMND. These seven pools represent close to 75% of all Bitcoin hashashrate. This protocol allows individual miners to construct their own block templates. This change moves the choice of which transactions get included in a block from the pool operator to the miner. I see this as a movement toward more autonomy. Foundry’s speed in other markets shows its reach, as its Zcash pool captured 29% of that network’s hashashrate within a month of its April 2026 launch. This rapid capture happened because institutional miners sought a compliant US-based option following an announcement on March 11. The Zcash pool uses a PPLNS payout model and requires KYC/AML checks. The Zcash pool uses transparent ZEC addresses for reward distribution. Zooko Wilcox, the Zcash founder, stated this entry spreads out the Zcash mining hashpower from its current concentration in a single pool. Will the Bitcoin network maintain its decentralization if a single pool continues to grow its share?