Mempool Claims That Bitcoin’s Hashrate Is Centralized

In a new development in the world of cryptocurrency, a report from Mempool has revealed that Bitcoin’s hashrate has become highly centralized. Two mining pools, Foundry USA and Antpool, have emerged as the major players in the market, collectively holding 50% of the total blockchain mining power.

Foundry USA and Antpool Dominate Bitcoin’s Mining Space

Foundry USA, which is based in the United States, has maintained its hashrate of over 30% of the total Bitcoin network for several weeks and is the first non-Chinese-originated pool to lead the list. This is a notable shift from November 2021, when the pool was only contributing 17% of the total hashrate. Today, it averages 34.1% of the mining power, which is equivalent to approximately 104 EH/s, considering the Bitcoin hashrate is around 300 EH/s.

Antpool, which is based in China, comes in second place with a hashrate of 18.0%, equivalent to around 58 EH/s. Although it used to be the largest Bitcoin pool, it was impacted by the ban on crypto mining in the region, causing some miners to migrate.

The data also reveals that over 80% of Bitcoin’s mining power is concentrated among just 5 pools, with a mempool graph showing this to be a stark contrast from the start of 2022 when these pools barely exceeded 60% of the hashrate.

The report highlights several factors that could have contributed to this rise, including the location of the servers of the major pools; the closer the servers, the lower the information transfer latency, and thus the more likely a miner will earn more Bitcoin.

Additionally, the financial incentives offered by these large mining pools, such as consistent profit distribution, have also been noted as attracting more miners to join their ecosystem. This is particularly evident in the current market conditions, where the bullish movement of Bitcoin and high mining difficulty have made it difficult for smaller mining pools to be profitable.

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