Bitcoin mining pool giant Foundry officially launches Zcash mining pool, now commanding nearly one-third of the network's hashrate

On April 13, Fortune reported that Foundry—Bitcoin mining pool giant—has officially launched a mining pool for privacy coin Zcash, a move seen as a major endorsement of the crypto. Foundry CEO Mike Colyer noted the Zcash pool launch comes as large institutions show growing interest in so-called "privacy coins." The pool has already signed on several institutional clients, with its computing power now making up nearly one-third of Zcash’s total network hashrate. Zcash currently ranks as the 15th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a valuation of roughly $6.3 billion. Launched in 2016, it uses zero-knowledge proof technology to enable transaction privacy. Unlike competitor Monero, Zcash’s architecture supports selective disclosure—making it more regulatory-compliant and thus more appealing to big institutions like banks.