Institutional Demand for Privacy Coins Drives Foundry to Launch Zcash Mining Pool
Set to debut in April, the new mining pool marks the digital asset infrastructure provider's first expansion outside Bitcoin mining operations.
Foundry Digital, a prominent digital asset infrastructure provider, has announced plans to introduce a dedicated Zcash mining pool by April 2026, marking its first venture outside the Bitcoin mining sector. According to the firm, this new offering will cater specifically to institutional operators and publicly listed mining companies that prioritize compliance-oriented services.
The upcoming mining pool will operate from within the United States and will leverage the same technological foundation that powers Foundry USA Pool, the company's existing mining operation. According to Foundry, miners utilizing the service will have access to comprehensive reporting capabilities and distribution mechanisms specifically tailored to satisfy the operational needs of institutional-scale mining operations.
As a privacy-centric digital currency, Zcash operates with an encrypted blockchain that utilizes zero-knowledge proofs for transaction verification. Mining pools function as collaborative platforms where numerous miners aggregate their computational resources and distribute the resulting block rewards among participants, thereby improving the likelihood of receiving regular payouts.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, a Foundry representative explained that the decision to develop the Zcash-focused mining pool stems from the belief that "Zcash addresses something we believe is genuinely important: the idea that financial privacy is foundational to economic freedom, and that privacy and compliance can coexist." The spokesperson further elaborated:
When institutional and public miners can mine Zcash through infrastructure built to their standards, it brings new hashrate to the network and strengthens its security.
Established in 2019, Foundry Digital specializes in providing mining infrastructure and associated services to companies operating in the digital asset space. The company's Foundry USA Pool currently ranks among the leading Bitcoin mining pools measured by hashrate distribution. According to Foundry, the Zcash-focused pool is scheduled to commence operations in April 2026.
This development follows closely after former Electric Coin Company developers successfully secured over $25 million in funding to advance development of a privacy-centered wallet solution for Zcash.
Zcash garners attention amid price volatility
Originally introduced in 2016, Zcash enables participants to execute transactions while keeping information such as sender and receiver addresses or transfer amounts hidden from public view. The protocol builds upon Bitcoin's foundational code while incorporating zero-knowledge proofs, specifically zk-SNARKs, which provide users the ability to choose between "shielded" private transactions or traditional transparent ones.
Throughout 2025, Zcash emerged as one of the most frequently mentioned privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies within the broader digital asset ecosystem, with prominent figures including Arthur Hayes, Naval Ravikant and Mert Mumtaz contributing commentary that amplified awareness of both the network and its native ZEC token.
This surge in attention propelled Zcash upward by approximately 600% during the preceding twelve-month period, rising from under $35 in March 2025 to a peak of $698.87 on Nov. 16, 2025, based on data from CoinGecko. However, the token has experienced a significant correction since that high point, declining 58.7% year-to-date from approximately $512 on Jan. 1 to around $212 as of this writing.
Despite the increased spotlight on the project, mining operations on the Zcash network continue to be dominated by a relatively limited number of mining pools.
According to information from Poolbay, ViaBTC currently commands approximately 31.7% of the network's total hashrate, while F2Pool maintains roughly 15.8% of mining power, with the remaining hashrate divided among smaller operations including 2Miners and Antpool.