Foundry Launches Zcash Mining Pool Alongside Industry-Leading Bitcoin Pool

In brief

• Foundry Digital launched its Zcash mining pool with institutional firms already onboarded.
• The pool has captured 29% of the Zcash network’s hashrate since it was announced in March.
• Foundry also unveiled Zcashinfo.com, a new block explorer for the Zcash blockchain.

Foundry Digital, operator of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, officially launched its Foundry Zcash Pool on Monday with multiple institutional mining customers already onboarded. The pool has captured about 29% of the Zcash network’s hashrate since its March announcement, per on-chain data, marking a rapid expansion into privacy-focused cryptocurrency mining beyond Bitcoin. Foundry CEO Mike Colyer positioned the launch as addressing a critical infrastructure gap around the coin, which saw a surge in value last year. “The launch of Foundry Zcash Pool reflects years of building infrastructure that institutions trust and a responsibility we’re committed to living up to in the Zcash ecosystem,” said Foundry CEO Mike Colyer, in a statement. Zcash offers something genuinely important to the digital asset ecosystem: verifiable financial privacy on a transparent blockchain.”

Alongside the mining pool, Foundry unveiled Zcashinfo.com, a new block explorer built for Zcash, letting users look up transactions and see ecosystem data, including mining pool statistics.  “I’m happy that Foundry is bringing their institutional credibility and long-term commitment to Zcash,” said Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox, the chief product officer of Shielded Labs. “Their mining pool and their Zcashinfo.com explorer are valuable additions to Zcash’s infrastructure.” Foundry USA Pool commands around 29% of all Bitcoin production among mining pools, per data from Hashrate Index. Already, the firm’s Zcash pool has claimed a similar share on that chain, and it comes as the coin is seeing another surge in value.

Zcash (ZEC), launched in 2016 as a privacy-focused cryptocurrency built on zero-knowledge proof technology, spiked in value last fall, rising from about $50 per coin to nearly $700 within a two-month window. ZEC fell in value alongside Bitcoin and other top assets in recent months, but has surged again of late, rising alongside the broader market while outpacing most other major coins. Over the last month, ZEC has jumped 73% to a recent price of $354, including a nearly 42% rise in the last seven days alone. Despite the recent surge, traders on Myriad—a prediction market platform operated by Decrypt’s parent company, Dastan—have flipped bearish on ZEC’s short-term prospects. They currently pencil in just a 23% chance that Zcash rises to $420 sometime in April, down from 63% odds on Friday.