Foundry Expands Beyond Bitcoin Mining With Institutional Pool for Zcash

Foundry Digital, the mining subsidiary of Digital Currency Group and operator of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool by hash rate, is preparing to enter new territory. The company announced plans to launch an institutional-grade mining pool for Zcash in April 2026, marking its first major expansion beyond the Bitcoin ecosystem and signaling renewed institutional attention toward privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

The upcoming platform is designed specifically for institutional participants, including publicly traded mining firms and large-scale operators that require regulated infrastructure and operational transparency. According to Foundry, the new service aims to address what it describes as a significant gap in compliant mining infrastructure for Zcash within the United States.

Unlike many existing pools, the system will incorporate full Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering compliance procedures. It will also offer transparent payout calculations, detailed reporting tools and continuous technical support for participants. The company added that miners will not be required to meet a minimum hash rate threshold in order to join the network, a decision intended to broaden participation while maintaining enterprise-grade oversight.

Foundry chief executive Mike Colyer said the move reflects the growing maturity of the Zcash ecosystem and increasing demand from institutional miners seeking regulated access to alternative proof-of-work networks. In his view, the technology has reached a level of credibility that now warrants stronger infrastructure.

“Zcash has matured into an institutional-grade asset, but the mining infrastructure supporting it hasn’t kept pace,” Colyer said in a statement. He emphasized that the decision does not signal a shift away from Bitcoin mining, which he described as the company’s “core foundation,” but rather an effort to fill a structural gap in the broader crypto mining landscape.

The new Zcash pool will be built using the same operational framework that powers Foundry USA, the firm’s flagship Bitcoin mining pool. That system has undergone SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance audits, standards that many institutional investors consider essential for operational transparency and internal controls.

Mining rewards within the new pool will be distributed through transparent Zcash addresses instead of shielded ones. Payments will follow a Pay Per Last N Shares model, which Colyer said ensures that reward calculations remain fully auditable for participating miners.

Launched in 2016, Zcash distinguishes itself through the use of zero-knowledge proof technology, specifically zk-SNARKs, which allow transactions to be validated without revealing sensitive details such as the sender, receiver or transaction amount. The network offers a hybrid structure in which users can choose between transparent transactions and shielded transfers designed to preserve financial privacy.

Market interest in privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies has intensified over the past year. Zcash’s native token, ZEC, has surged more than 600 percent during the previous twelve months, significantly outperforming competing privacy coins such as Monero and Dash. The asset experienced a dramatic rally in late 2025, climbing from roughly $50 to around $700 before retreating below the $200 level earlier this month.

The network’s mining activity has also expanded steadily. Zcash’s hash rate has risen from 8.1 GSol/s to 13.8 GSol/s since early September, reflecting a growing number of miners contributing computational power to the blockchain.

Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox suggested that Foundry’s entry could play an important role in improving the network’s decentralization. With ViaBTC currently controlling roughly 30 percent of the total hash rate, the arrival of a large institutional pool may encourage new participants and help distribute mining power more evenly.

The expansion also arrives at a time when many Bitcoin miners are reassessing their strategies following the 2024 halving, which reduced block rewards while rising network difficulty compressed profit margins. However, Foundry’s Zcash pool will operate with specialized hardware distinct from Bitcoin mining equipment, as the two networks rely on different proof-of-work algorithms.

For Foundry, the initiative represents both diversification and a strategic bet that privacy-focused blockchain technology will remain an important component of the evolving digital asset economy.