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Foundry, the prominent digital asset infrastructure provider and operator of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool by total hashrate, has officially announced its expansion into the privacy-centric cryptocurrency sector. The company plans to launch a dedicated, institutional-grade Zcash (ZEC) mining pool slated for deployment in April 2026. This strategic move is designed to bridge a significant infrastructure gap for public companies and institutional entities seeking compliant, enterprise-level access to privacy-focused digital assets.

The announcement marks a pivotal turning point for the Zcash ecosystem, which has experienced a remarkable resurgence in network participation and computational power over recent months. By leveraging its operational expertise derived from running Foundry USA—the dominant Bitcoin mining pool in North America—Foundry aims to deliver a secure, highly reliable, and regulatory-friendly mining environment tailored specifically to corporate balance sheets and large-scale operations.

Main Facts and Operational Framework

The upcoming Zcash mining pool will mirror the robust infrastructure, security protocols, and geographical compliance standards that have characterized Foundry’s flagship Bitcoin operations. Headquartered in the United States, Foundry has built its reputation on transparency, uptime, and adherence to regulatory frameworks, making it a preferred partner for institutional miners operating within strict legal jurisdictions.

A mining pool functions as a collaborative network where independent miners combine their computational power—known as hashrate—to solve cryptographic blocks more efficiently. By pooling resources, participants smooth out the variance in block discovery, ensuring a more consistent and predictable revenue stream proportional to the contribution of their hardware.

Until now, institutional participation in Zcash mining has been hindered by a lack of enterprise-grade infrastructure capable of meeting corporate compliance, auditing, and security standards. Foundry’s entry into the space addresses this bottleneck directly, offering institutional miners a trusted gateway to participate in the network.

Background and Context of the Zcash Ecosystem

Launched in October 2016, Zcash was developed as a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency rooted in Bitcoin’s original codebase. Consequently, its underlying tokenomics share many structural similarities with Bitcoin. Zcash features a fixed supply cap of 21 million coins, with new units minted and distributed to miners as block rewards upon the successful validation of transactions. Furthermore, the protocol incorporates a halving schedule that reduces the block reward by half approximately every four years, creating a deflationary supply dynamic over the long term.

What distinguishes Zcash from older protocols like Bitcoin and Ethereum is its advanced cryptography, specifically Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge (zk-SNARKs). While traditional blockchains are pseudonymous—meaning transactions are publicly linked to alphanumeric wallet addresses rather than real-world identities—Zcash offers users the option of utilizing "shielded" transactions. These transactions fully encrypt sender, recipient, and transaction amount details while still allowing the network to cryptographically verify their validity without exposing sensitive data.

This unique architecture has positioned Zcash at the center of ongoing global discussions regarding the coexistence of financial privacy and regulatory compliance. As governments and financial institutions worldwide grapple with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) mandates, Zcash’s technology demonstrates how privacy can be preserved alongside transparent verification systems.

Timeline and Chronological Development

The decision by Foundry to enter the Zcash mining ecosystem follows a series of notable developments within the network over the past several years:

• October 2016: Zcash officially launches, introducing zero-knowledge privacy technology to the broader cryptocurrency market.
• 2021–2024: The privacy coin sector navigates fluctuating regulatory landscapes, with various jurisdictions debating the legal status of privacy-enhancing protocols while enterprise interest in zero-knowledge proofs steadily grows across traditional finance and supply chain sectors.
• Late 2024 to Late 2025: The Zcash network experiences a profound shift in macroeconomic and fundamental metrics, highlighted by a sharp resurgence in total network hashrate. Data from analytics platforms indicates that the computational power securing the Zcash blockchain climbs from under 8 Gigahashes per second (Ghash/s) in October to over 13 Ghash/s in subsequent months, signaling renewed miner accumulation and capital investment.
• March 2026: Foundry formally announces its plans to introduce an institutional-grade Zcash mining pool, targeting an official operational launch in April 2026. This announcement serves as validation of the network’s maturation and expanding institutional appeal.

Official Responses and Industry Reactions

The announcement has generated widespread enthusiasm among core developers, privacy advocates, and ecosystem support organizations. Industry leaders have highlighted the strategic importance of having a major North American institutional player validate and support the Zcash network.

Mike Colyer, Chief Executive Officer of Foundry, emphasized the strategic rationale behind the expansion, noting that the existing mining infrastructure for privacy assets has lagged behind the asset class’s maturation. "Zcash has matured into an institutional-grade asset, but the mining infrastructure supporting it hasn’t kept pace," Colyer stated in the official press release. By deploying institutional-grade tooling, Foundry aims to resolve this discrepancy.

Zooko Wilcox, founder of Zcash and Chief Product Officer at Shielded Labs—an independent support organization for ZEC based in Switzerland—welcomed the news with strong endorsement. "We at Shielded Labs are delighted that Foundry—the largest Bitcoin mining pool, and one based in North America—is launching an enterprise-grade Zcash mining pool," Wilcox remarked. The collaboration between established enterprise infrastructure providers and decentralized privacy protocols is widely viewed as a crucial step toward broader mainstream adoption.

Supporting Data and Market Performance

The timing of Foundry’s announcement coincides with notable shifts in both the technical indicators of the Zcash network and its spot market performance.

From a computational standpoint, the network’s hashrate has demonstrated sustained upward momentum. Moving from lows of under 8 Ghash/s to stabilizing above 13 Ghash/s, the increase in mining difficulty and hardware allocation reflects heightened confidence from miners worldwide. Higher hashrate generally correlates with improved network security, making the blockchain more resilient against potential 51% attacks and unauthorized reorganizations.

Concurrently, the native token, ZEC, has experienced normal market volatility. At the time of reporting, Zcash trades at approximately $209 per token, reflecting a retracement of more than 11% over the preceding seven-day trading period. Despite short-term price corrections, long-term proponents argue that fundamental infrastructure investments—such as Foundry’s upcoming mining pool—provide a resilient foundation that transcends immediate price fluctuations.

Broader Impact and Industry Implications

Foundry’s entry into Zcash mining carries several profound implications for the digital asset landscape:

1. Legitimization of Privacy Assets: As regulatory scrutiny surrounding privacy coins remains intense globally, the participation of a heavily regulated, institutional-grade operator based in the United States sends a strong signal to the broader financial market. It underscores that privacy protocols can be integrated into institutional portfolios through compliant operational channels.
2. Professionalization of Mining Operations: Institutional entities require high standards of uptime, transparent accounting, legal compliance, and robust cybersecurity. By extending these standards from Bitcoin to Zcash, Foundry is helping to professionalize the entire mining sector for alternative Layer-1 protocols.
3. Enhancement of Network Security: The addition of a major mining pool naturally distributes hashrate across diverse geographic and operational entities, contributing to a more decentralized and secure consensus mechanism for the Zcash blockchain.

As the April 2026 launch date approaches, industry observers will closely monitor how institutional capital and enterprise miners respond to the new infrastructure offering, potentially setting a precedent for how other privacy-centric and alternative cryptographic networks are supported by mainstream digital asset enterprises in the future.

Foundry, the powerhouse operator behind the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, has officially announced plans to expand its operational footprint into the privacy-centric cryptocurrency sector. The company is set to launch an institutional-grade Zcash (ZEC) mining pool slated for deployment in April 2026. This strategic initiative is specifically engineered to address and bridge a long-standing infrastructure gap for public companies and institutional entities looking to participate securely and compliantly in Zcash mining operations.

The announcement marks a significant milestone for both Foundry and the broader privacy coin ecosystem. By introducing an enterprise-grade infrastructure to Zcash, Foundry aims to bring the same level of reliability, regulatory compliance, and operational scale to ZEC that it has historically provided to the Bitcoin network through Foundry USA, currently the dominant Bitcoin mining pool by total computational power, or hashrate.

Background and Context of the Expansion

The decision by Foundry to venture into Zcash mining does not happen in a vacuum. Over the past decade, the cryptocurrency landscape has matured significantly, transitioning from a niche technological experiment dominated by retail enthusiasts into an institutional asset class. However, the infrastructure supporting privacy-focused digital assets has frequently lagged behind the rigorous standards required by publicly traded companies, regulated financial institutions, and corporate treasuries.

Zcash, launched in October 2016, occupies a unique position in the digital asset hierarchy. While pioneer cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum offer pseudonymous transparency—where transaction histories and public addresses are permanently recorded on an open ledger—Zcash introduced advanced cryptographic technology known as zero-knowledge proofs (specifically zk-SNARKs). This architecture allows users to execute transactions with absolute privacy regarding the sender, receiver, and transaction amount, while still maintaining consensus integrity on a public blockchain.

For years, this robust privacy feature created a friction point with institutional adoption due to regulatory compliance uncertainties. However, as the industry has evolved, developers and stakeholders have increasingly demonstrated that financial privacy and regulatory transparency can coexist through selective disclosure and compliant infrastructure design. Recognizing this maturation, Foundry has positioned itself to capture the rising institutional interest in privacy-preserving assets.

Chronology of Recent Developments and the Zcash Hashrate Boom

Foundry’s upcoming April 2026 launch arrives on the heels of a remarkable technical resurgence within the Zcash network. Over the past several quarters, the Zcash blockchain has experienced a substantial surge in network hashrate, reflecting renewed miner confidence and heightened computational participation.

Historical data from analytics providers such as BitInfoCharts illustrates the velocity of this growth. In October of the previous year, the total computational power dedicated to securing the Zcash network hovered below 8 Ghash/s. Since then, the network has undergone a dramatic expansion, with the active hashrate climbing steadily to surpass 13 Ghash/s. This upward trajectory indicates that hardware operators are increasingly allocating resources back toward Zcash mining operations, driven by shifting market dynamics, technological upgrades, and anticipated infrastructural improvements.

The timeline for Foundry’s entry involves rigorous preparatory phases leading up to the scheduled April 2026 rollout. Following the initial press release and stakeholder alignment, engineering teams are currently focused on establishing secure, resilient, U.S.-based operational frameworks mirroring the robust architecture utilized by Foundry USA.

Economic Architecture of Zcash

From a foundational standpoint, Zcash shares deep technical roots with Bitcoin. The protocol was originally derived from Bitcoin’s foundational codebase, resulting in identical or parallel macroeconomic principles. Like Bitcoin, Zcash operates on a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, meaning new tokens are minted and introduced into circulation as rewards given to miners who successfully cryptographically verify and append new blocks to the blockchain.

Furthermore, Zcash enforces a strict maximum supply cap of 21 million tokens, mirroring Bitcoin’s deflationary scarcity model. To control the emission rate, the Zcash protocol incorporates a halving schedule, cutting the block reward in half approximately every four years. This predictable supply schedule has historically served as a core pillar of value retention, attracting long-term investors and capital allocators who favor transparent, programmatic monetary policies.

Official Responses and Industry Reactions

The announcement has generated widespread enthusiasm across the Zcash development community and independent support organizations. Industry leaders have been quick to praise Foundry’s strategic commitment to the ecosystem, viewing it as a validation of Zcash’s technological maturity.

Mike Colyer, Chief Executive Officer of Foundry, emphasized the necessity of bridging the gap between traditional corporate requirements and decentralized mining technology. "Zcash has matured into an institutional-grade asset, but the mining infrastructure supporting it hasn’t kept pace," Colyer stated, underlining the core motivation behind the upcoming pool.

Similarly, Zooko Wilcox, founder of Zcash and Chief Product Officer at Shielded Labs—an independent, Switzerland-based support organization dedicated to the growth of the ZEC ecosystem—welcomed the news with strong endorsement. "We at Shielded Labs are delighted that Foundry—the largest Bitcoin mining pool, and one based in North America—is launching an enterprise-grade Zcash mining pool," Wilcox remarked. The endorsement from a foundational figure like Wilcox highlights the collaborative synergy between major infrastructure providers and core protocol advocates.

Current Market Performance of ZEC

As Foundry prepares its infrastructure for the 2026 launch, the market price of Zcash continues to experience normal volatility characteristic of the broader digital asset markets. At the time of reporting, Zcash is changing hands at approximately $209 per token, reflecting a retracement of more than 11% over the preceding seven-day trading period. Market analysts note that while short-term price fluctuations remain tied to macroeconomic conditions and sector-wide sentiment, fundamental network health metrics—such as the aforementioned surge in hashrate—suggest underlying network strength independent of immediate price action.

Implications and Broader Impact on the Mining Ecosystem

The introduction of an institutional-grade Zcash mining pool by an industry titan like Foundry carries profound implications for the digital asset mining landscape.

First, it provides a trusted, regulatory-compliant gateway for institutional entities, asset managers, and public corporations to directly engage with privacy-preserving networks without compromising on operational security or compliance standards. By utilizing US-based operations, Foundry ensures that participants benefit from jurisdictional clarity and adherence to rigorous corporate governance frameworks.

Second, the move is expected to decentralize and diversify the revenue streams of major mining operations. As profitability margins fluctuate within the Bitcoin mining sector due to rising energy costs and hardware competition, diversification into alternative Proof-of-Work networks like Zcash offers miners a viable hedge.

Finally, Foundry’s entry signals a broader shift in how privacy coins are perceived by the financial mainstream. By actively building enterprise infrastructure for a privacy-focused asset, Foundry helps legitimize the coexistence of transactional privacy and regulatory compliance, potentially paving the way for wider institutional integration across other privacy-centric protocols in the future.