Something quite paradoxical has just been announced in the cryptocurrency mining space. Foundry Digital, which controls around 30% of the global Bitcoin hashrate, is launching an institutional pool for Zcash in April 2026. But here’s the irony: Zcash was created specifically to provide financial privacy, and this new cryptocurrency mining pool will only pay through transparent addresses that require KYC and AML. Basically, it’s a privacy pool without privacy.

I think this reflects a real problem that Zcash has faced. The network has suffered hashpower concentration among operators mainly outside the United States, and many regulated institutions simply can’t participate because there is no proper compliance infrastructure. Foundry’s CEO, Mike Colyer, sees this as a solution to that gap. The pool will have SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications, specialized reporting tools, and 24/7 support for institutional participants.

What’s interesting is that Zooko Wilcox, founder of Zcash, considers that this could attract miners who avoided the network precisely due to the lack of institutional-grade options. Foundry’s payment model is also different: it uses Pay Per Last N Shares, which provides more predictable income than other systems. For companies that need to forecast cash flows, this matters.

But there’s a bigger question here. Can institutional infrastructure coexist with a privacy-focused asset without destroying its purpose? The fact that the cryptocurrency mining layer is compliant doesn’t make the asset compliant. It only makes an entry point into the Zcash ecosystem auditable and regulated. What miners do afterward with their ZEC, including potentially protecting it with Zcash’s privacy features, is another story.

Regulators have historically treated privacy coins as higher risk regardless of how they are acquired, so we’ll see if this distinction satisfies them. With the price of ZEC hovering around $348 en these days and the overall market showing volatility, the April launch will be the first real data point on whether this works. Definitely something to watch closely in the coming months.