Foundry masuk ke industri penambangan Zcash: Mengapa raksasa pertambangan berinvestasi di jalur privasi

13 April 2026, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool operator Foundry officially announced the launch of a new mining pool for privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash. This company, headquartered in northern New York, has been focused on Bitcoin pool operations since its establishment in 2019, currently controlling about 31% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, making it an undisputed infrastructure-level player in the industry. With this move, Foundry has locked in its second mining pool business for Zcash, marking the first time this mining giant has extended its business scope into the privacy track, attracting widespread industry attention.

Foundry CEO Mike Colyer explicitly stated in a statement that this move aims to respond to the growing demand for privacy coins from large institutions. The company expects that institutional miners, including several listed companies, will allocate part of their hash rate to Zcash mining. This judgment has been preliminarily validated—since the pool announced its launch in March 2026, it has quickly attracted multiple institutional miners, now accounting for nearly one-third of the new production on the Zcash network.

Meanwhile, Foundry simultaneously launched the Zcash block explorer Zcashinfo.com, providing real-time data services on pools, blocks, hash rate, and difficulty. This infrastructure move further demonstrates Foundry’s long-term commitment to the Zcash ecosystem.

Market response shows that Zcash’s price has increased by over 75% since Foundry announced its mining pool plan in March, significantly outperforming the approximately 7% rise of the overall crypto market during the same period. The privacy coin sector, represented by Zcash, has also experienced a systemic rebound, with DASH surging over 50% in a single week, indicating that the privacy track is undergoing its strongest capital inflow since 2021.

A half-year brewing layout

Foundry’s entry into Zcash is not an isolated event but a microcosm of the systemic revival of the privacy sector. Analyzing the timeline reveals that this event is the result of multiple narrative threads converging in spring 2026:

January 2026: Regulatory shackles lifted. The US SEC officially ended its two-year investigation into the Zcash Foundation, closing without charges. This outcome removed the regulatory cloud hanging over Zcash since August 2023, clearing a key obstacle for institutional capital entry.

January 2026: Top-tier capital supports the privacy track. The original Zcash core development team established the Zcash Open Development Laboratory and received $25 million in seed funding from investors including a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, focusing on Zodl wallet development and ecosystem expansion.

March 2026: Foundry announces Zcash mining pool plans. After the announcement, Zcash’s price began to rise significantly, with the market positively pricing the signal of “institutional infrastructure entering.”

Early April 2026: On-chain whales increase holdings. Around April 1, within 48 hours, Zcash recorded over $10 million net inflow of funds, mainly driven by large investors. On-chain data shows this capital was concentrated in a few large wallets, with spot exchange net outflows during the same period, exhibiting typical long-term allocation characteristics.

Early April 2026: Full-scale explosion in the privacy coin sector. On April 10, DASH surged 30% in a single day to $34, leading the entire privacy sector; ZEC rose 49% in a week, with $41.46 million in derivatives funds flowing into privacy-related assets. Behind this sector rotation, factors such as Western Union’s acquisition of Dash wallets and the Iran-US ceasefire triggering risk appetite recovery resonated.

April 13, 2026: Foundry officially launches Zcash mining pool. On the same day, the SEC announced the end of its investigation into Zcash, with dual positive signals further strengthening market focus on the privacy sector.

As of April 14, 2026: According to Gate data, Zcash’s price is $357.75, with a 30-day increase of 64.38% and an annual increase of 866.93%; DASH is priced at $40.4, up 34.51% in 7 days and 94.67% over the year; Monero’s price is $347.41, with a market cap of about $6.4 billion. The synchronized strength of the three major privacy coins contrasts sharply with the moderate gains of Bitcoin and Ethereum during the same period, indicating that the independent market logic of the privacy track is materializing.

Hash rate migration logic of the mining giants

First, hash rate scale. Foundry’s Bitcoin mining pool currently controls about 31% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, making it the largest Bitcoin mining pool operator worldwide. After launching its Zcash pool, it quickly captured about 30% of the network’s hash rate, becoming the largest single mining pool operator in the Zcash ecosystem.

Second, institutional participation. The pool has attracted multiple institutional miners, including several listed companies. Unlike open pools for retail miners, Foundry’s Zcash pool adopts a closed model limited to invited institutional clients, emphasizing compliance and security.

Third, technical architecture. Zcash uses the same PoW consensus mechanism as Bitcoin, based on the Equihash algorithm, which means Bitcoin miners can relatively easily switch some of their hash rate to the Zcash network.

Foundry’s entry into Zcash can be dissected into three dimensions.

From an asset allocation perspective, institutional funds are seeking sources of yield beyond Bitcoin. Foundry expects its Bitcoin pool clients to allocate some hash rate to Zcash, essentially a “hash rate diversification” strategy—obtaining additional yields by participating in different PoW networks without significantly increasing infrastructure costs.

From a technical compatibility perspective, Zcash shares the same PoW architecture as Bitcoin, allowing Foundry to reuse its accumulated technical capabilities, client relationships, and operational experience in Bitcoin pools at a lower marginal cost. Mike Colyer’s statement—“Institutional miners will allocate part of their hash rate to Zcash mining”—precisely reveals this low-cost expansion logic.

From a market signal perspective, as a subsidiary of DCG, Foundry’s strategic decision reflects the parent company’s industry trend judgment to some extent. DCG founder Barry Silbert publicly stated at the New York Bitcoin Investor Week that in the coming years, 5% to 10% of Bitcoin funds will flow into privacy cryptocurrencies like Zcash. Foundry’s actions can be seen as a concrete implementation of this judgment at the infrastructure level.

A noteworthy trend is that Foundry may not be the only mining giant paying attention to the privacy sector. As Zcash’s price continues to strengthen and hash rate profitability increases, other mainstream mining pool operators may follow suit in deploying PoW networks for privacy coins. If this trend materializes, the hash rate distribution of the Zcash network could be reshuffled, and concentration may change. However, this hypothesis depends on conditions such as: Zcash’s price remaining at relatively high levels; institutional miners’ continued willingness to allocate to privacy tracks; and regulatory environments not reversing course.

Public opinion analysis: three narratives’ divergence and consensus

Regarding Foundry’s entry into Zcash and the overall revival of the privacy sector, the market has formed three mainstream narrative frameworks, with significant tensions among them.

Institutional compliance privacy victory

This narrative believes that Zcash’s core competitive advantage lies in its “optional privacy” architecture—users can choose transparent transactions or shielded transactions via zk-SNARKs, with the option for selective disclosure to meet regulatory requirements. Compared to Monero’s “mandatory anonymity” design, Zcash retains compliance operational space for institutional clients. ChainCatcher’s analysis article points out that new-generation privacy projects are building a “programmable compliance” paradigm, embedding compliance logic directly into the underlying code of privacy protocols, transforming privacy from “regulatory opposition” to “compliance support.” Foundry’s choice of Zcash over other privacy coins is interpreted as a strategic vote for this compliance route.

Concerns over hash rate centralization

Not all voices are optimistic. As Foundry’s Zcash pool rapidly accounts for about 30% of the network’s hash rate, some analysts warn that Zcash faces the risk of over-centralization of hash power in a single entity, which could challenge the network’s long-term decentralization and security. Previously, Zcash’s mining pool ecosystem was relatively dispersed; Foundry’s entry brought institutional-grade hash power but also altered the hash distribution pattern.

Capital rotation in the privacy sector

Some market observers believe that the recent collective rise of privacy coins is more a result of capital rotation rather than a sustained fundamental trend. Analysis shows that Bitcoin and Ethereum rose about 8% and 9% respectively during the same period, while privacy coins surged far beyond mainstream assets, indicating funds are flowing from blue-chip assets to the relatively undervalued and narrative-undervalued privacy sector. DASH’s 30% single-day increase with $41.46 million in derivatives funds inflow also reflects speculative positioning. The core debate here is whether the privacy coin rally is the start of a structural recovery or just short-term capital gaming.

The tension among these narratives precisely confirms that the privacy sector is at a turning point

The tension among these three narratives itself indicates the issue—when a sector moves from the fringe to the mainstream, it inevitably involves disputes over compliance paths, centralization versus decentralization, and speculation versus long-term holding. Foundry’s choice represents a pragmatic compromise: based on the most “Bitcoin-like” PoW consensus mechanism, it integrates an asset network with privacy features and compliance possibilities.

Industry impact analysis: from mining landscape to sector valuation

Impact on the mining landscape

Foundry’s entry into Zcash marks the beginning of infrastructure operators shifting from “single-asset dependence” to “multi-asset deployment.” Previously, Bitcoin mining pools almost exclusively focused resources on Bitcoin, and PoW privacy coins like Zcash lacked institutional-grade mining services for a long time. Foundry’s entry fills this gap and provides a replicable business model for other mining giants. If validated, the hash rate infrastructure of PoW privacy coin networks will undergo systemic upgrades, enhancing network security and resistance to attacks.

Impact on valuation logic of the privacy sector

The valuation logic of the privacy sector is undergoing reshaping. Historically, privacy coins were marginalized by mainstream exchanges and regulators due to their “anonymity,” with market caps suppressed at very low levels. Zcash’s current market cap is about $5.97 billion, accounting for only about 0.22% of the entire crypto market, far below its potential value as a foundational privacy infrastructure. With the entry of institutional infrastructure providers like Foundry, the end of SEC investigations, and the advancement of Grayscale ETF applications, the “regulatory discount” on privacy sector assets is gradually being eliminated.

A key variable is the progress of Zcash’s integration with major exchanges and payment networks. Currently, Zcash is pushing technical integrations with multiple platforms, aiming to complete by the end of April. Once achieved, Zcash’s liquidity depth and accessibility will significantly improve, creating a positive feedback loop of “liquidity enhancement → institutional attention → capital inflow → further liquidity improvement.”

Impact on participants

For ordinary users, Foundry’s entry brings at least two effects. First, the security of the Zcash network is significantly enhanced by institutional hash power injection, greatly increasing the cost of 51% attacks. Second, as Zcash’s attention rises and exchange integrations advance, the barriers to obtaining and trading Zcash are lowering. On mainstream platforms like Gate, users can directly participate in buying and selling Zcash and DASH through spot trading pairs.

Three possible paths for the privacy sector

Scenario 1: Institutional compliance privacy becomes mainstream

If Grayscale’s Zcash Trust spot ETF is approved, Foundry’s mining pool continues to attract institutional hash power, and more traditional financial institutions include Zcash in their asset allocations, the privacy sector will follow a path quite different from Monero’s “mandatory anonymity.” In this scenario, Zcash could become a standard “privacy layer” in institutional crypto portfolios, with its market cap expanding from the current around $6 billion. Key indicators include: ETF approval progress, on-chain holdings of institutional wallets, and liquidity depth changes on major exchanges.

Scenario 2: Hash rate centralization triggers governance disputes

If Foundry’s hash rate share continues to grow to over 40% or even 50%, the Zcash community may face deep debates over hash rate centralization and network security. Historically, Bitcoin also experienced governance discussions over hash rate centralization, but its large network scale and diverse mining ecosystem provided strong self-regulation. As a relatively smaller network, Zcash’s experience in handling hash rate concentration is limited. If disputes escalate, community splits or technical route adjustments could occur. Key indicators include: changes in Foundry’s hash rate share, other pools’ hash rate movements, and community governance proposals.

Scenario 3: Ongoing tug-of-war between privacy narratives and regulation

Although the SEC has ended its investigation into Zcash, global regulatory attitudes toward privacy coins remain divided. In early 2026, India’s financial intelligence unit ordered domestic exchanges to cease support for Zcash, Monero, and DASH. This indicates that the privacy sector still faces “fragmentation” challenges in the global regulatory landscape—while the US maintains some compliance space, other jurisdictions may tighten restrictions. If regulatory divergence intensifies, liquidity differences across markets will widen, impacting global pricing efficiency. Key indicators include: policy trends in major jurisdictions, exchange delistings or listings, and the speed of Zcash’s application in compliant scenarios.

Conclusion: “Infrastructure moment” in the privacy sector

Foundry’s entry into Zcash mining is fundamentally an event of “infrastructure operators voting with their hash rate” on the narrative track. The mining giant’s choice of hash rate as a vote expresses a basic judgment of the long-term value of PoW privacy coins. The logic behind this choice is straightforward: when institutional capital begins to see financial privacy as a core need rather than a marginal tool, the underlying networks supporting this demand require institutional-grade infrastructure. Foundry’s move fills a gap in the Zcash ecosystem’s infrastructure segment.

However, it must be emphasized that Foundry’s entry is a necessary condition for the structural revival of the privacy sector, not a sufficient one. Whether privacy coins can truly move beyond “niche tools” depends on continuous technological iteration meeting compliance needs, sustained institutional capital allocation, and stable global regulatory frameworks. For industry participants, Foundry’s decision offers a window into strategic shifts—major mining players’ moves are rarely impulsive but the result of long-term industry judgment and risk assessment.