This Group of Four Now Dominates Over 70% of a Key Blockchain Resource

Four Bitcoin mining pools, Foundry Digital, AntPool, ViaBTC, and F2Pool, controlled more than 70% of the network’s hashrate as of a June 23, 2026 snapshot from miningpoolstats.stream. The concentration is increasingly described as a two-tier market favoring institutional clients, prompting independent miners to quietly reconsider which pools they point their machines to.

One detail that matters for US operators is that Foundry is US-based and backed by Digital Currency Group. The pool is described as being built primarily for large-scale, institutional operators and publicly traded mining companies, with strict KYC requirements baked into how it onboards clients.

CryptoSlate frames the concentration as a “two-tier market,” where the biggest pools increasingly optimize for institutional miners. That kind of optimization is usually invisible until you are the one fighting for responsiveness, predictable payouts, or account support, and it is why independent and mid-size miners are described as quietly rethinking where they point their machines.

The key shift is less about any single pool’s branding and more about what scale buys you. When a pool’s business is tuned for fleets and compliance-heavy customers, smaller miners can end up feeling like edge cases instead of the core product.

ViaBTC, which held 13% in the mid-2026 share estimates, has faced increasing regulatory scrutiny this year that has particularly affected miners tied to Russia and other CIS countries. The reporting describes account restrictions, sudden KYC demands, and temporary fund freezes, the kind of friction that can make even loyal miners reconsider their setup.