Foundry Digital, the operator of the Foundry USA Pool—currently the largest Bitcoin mining pool by hashrate—has announced plans to launch an institutional-grade Zcash (ZEC) mining pool with operations expected to begin in April 2026. The pool is designed specifically for institutional miners and publicly listed companies, aiming to fill what Foundry describes as a gap in the Zcash ecosystem for compliant, professionally managed mining infrastructure. According to the announcement, the service will mirror the operational, compliance, and reporting standards of Foundry’s existing Bitcoin pool, but tailored to the needs and regulatory considerations around mining a privacy-focused asset. The move is significant for both Zcash and institutional crypto mining. Zcash, launched in 2016, is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that uses zero-knowledge proof technology to allow shielded transactions while still enabling verification on a public blockchain. Foundry’s entry is framed as an endorsement of Zcash’s maturation into what its CEO Mike Colyer calls an “institutional-grade asset,” and a response to growing interest in privacy coins among large miners and financial institutions. Community discussion highlights both potential benefits and risks: on one side, more institutional hashrate is seen as strengthening Zcash’s network security and potentially attracting new miners; on the other, there are concerns about hashpower concentrating in a US-based, compliance-first pool and what that could mean for a network whose core value proposition centers on privacy. Subsequent reporting and data indicate that once launched, Foundry’s Zcash pool rapidly captured around 30% of network hashrate, underscoring its immediate impact on Zcash’s mining landscape. "entities":["Foundry Digital LLC","Foundry USA Pool","Foundry Zcash Pool","Zcash","ZEC","Digital Currency Group (DCG)","Mike Colyer","Zooko Wilcox","Shielded Labs","Zcashinfo.com","Businesswire"]}`

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