Foundry Secures 29% of Zcash Hashrate One Month After Pool Introduction

Foundry Digital’s recently introduced Zcash (ZEC) mining pool acquired nearly 29% of the network’s total hashrate within a month of its launch, a pace of consolidation that competes with the time it took ViaBTC, the previous leading pool, to achieve a similar position.

The pool was made public in April 2026 after Foundry revealed the initiative on March 11, bringing institutional miners on board prior to the official launch.

The rapidity of this hashrate acquisition is noteworthy. Foundry did not gradually enter Zcash mining; it quickly captured approximately the same market share that ViaBTC had established as the incumbent leader, which was around 30% of the network hashrate before Foundry’s arrival.

Key Takeaways:

• Hashrate Capture: Foundry’s Zcash pool secured ~29% of the network hashrate within one month of its launch, according to company data and the new Zcashinfo.com block explorer.
• Zcash Network Context: The total hashrate of Zcash had increased from 8.1 GSol/s to 13.8 GSol/s since early September 2025 prior to Foundry’s entry, with ViaBTC previously maintaining ~30% dominance.
• Pool Structure: The pool employs a PPLNS payout model, allocates rewards through transparent ZEC addresses, implements KYC/AML checks, and imposes no minimum hashrate, designed specifically for institutional access.
• Compliance Infrastructure: Foundry’s pool aligns with the SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance framework of Foundry USA Pool, its leading Bitcoin mining operation.
• Zcashinfo.com Launch: Foundry introduced a dedicated Zcash block explorer alongside the pool, offering real-time hashrate distribution, pool rankings, and mining difficulty monitoring.
• What to Watch: The next significant data point is whether Foundry’s share continues to rise beyond 30% – the level at which centralization risk becomes a pertinent network security discussion.

Discover: How sovereign and institutional actors are reshaping proof-of-work network economics

What Does 29% Hashrate Capture in One Month Actually Mean for Zcash Network Security?

A single pool controlling 29% of a PoW network’s hashrate is not inherently perilous, but it does concentrate block production risk in ways that necessitate oversight.

At 29%, Foundry cannot independently carry out a 51% attack, but it is sufficiently close to the threshold that any further organic growth could alter that assessment.

The fact that ViaBTC was already at ~30% before Foundry launched indicates that the network now has two pools each holding approximately three-tenths of the total hashrate. This represents a different concentration structure compared to six months ago.

Foundry Zcash Pool is officially live! Since our announcement last month, we’ve seen rapid hashrate growth reaching ~30% of network hashrate. Institutional miners have been looking for compliant, purpose-built $ZEC infrastructure, and we’re proud to deliver it.
Additionally,… pic.twitter.com/GOXyKrqhhH

— Foundry (@FoundryServices) April 13, 2026

Foundry CEO Mike Colyer characterized the launch as addressing an infrastructure gap: Zcash has “matured into an institutional-grade asset, but the mining infrastructure supporting it hasn’t kept pace.”

The data supports the assertion that Zcash’s hashrate growth from 8.1 GSol/s to 13.8 GSol/s since September 2025 reflects increasing miner interest that the existing pool infrastructure was not designed to accommodate at an institutional level.

What Foundry has established operationally is significant for its compliance framework. The pool’s PPLNS payout model, obligatory KYC/AML checks, SOC 1 and SOC 2 audit equivalency, and 24/7 U.S.-based support are not features intended for casual miners.

Foundry’s $ZEC mining pool is live today as one of the largest Zcash pools by hashrate, with multiple institutional customers already actively mining. The financial privacy ecosystem is growing. https://t.co/d39CYMltI6

— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) April 13, 2026

The absence of a minimum hashrate requirement means the entry barrier is low, but the compliance requirements indicate this is aimed at miners who require a defensible regulatory position, similar to the institutional group driving volume on Foundry USA Pool in Bitcoin.

Zooko Wilcox, Zcash founder and now Chief Product Officer at Shielded Labs, directly addressed the centralization concern: “This will spread out the Zcash mining hashpower from its current concentration in a single pool, and hopefully it will bring in new Zcash miners who trust Foundry to operate a high-quality service.”

This perspective views Foundry’s entry as a decentralization event in contrast to ViaBTC’s previous dominance. Whether it remains so will depend on where Foundry’s share stabilizes. If it surpasses 35%, the narrative may shift.

Source: Foundry

The data indicates swift institutional onboarding. This suggests pre-existing demand from miners who were awaiting a compliant U.S.-based option, rather than Foundry generating the hashrate from the ground up.

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