Foundry enters Zcash mining: Why are mining giants betting on the privacy track

On April 13, 2026, Foundry, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool operator, officially announced the launch of a new mining pool for the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash. Headquartered in northern New York State, the company has been focused on Bitcoin mining pool operations since its founding in 2019. It currently controls about 31% of the global Bitcoin hashrate, making it an undisputed infrastructure-level player in the industry. This time, Foundry has locked its second mining pool business to Zcash, marking the first time the mining giant has expanded its business footprint into the privacy sector—sparking widespread attention across the industry.

In a statement, Foundry CEO Mike Colyer made it clear that the purpose of this move is to respond to the growing demand from large institutions for privacy coins. The company expects that institutional miners, including several listed companies, will allocate part of their hashrate to Zcash mining. This assessment has already been preliminarily validated: since the pool previewed its launch in March 2026, it has rapidly attracted multiple institutional-grade miners, and it now accounts for nearly one-third of the new Zcash network’s total output.

At the same time, Foundry also launched the Zcash block explorer Zcashinfo.com, providing real-time data services including mining pools, blocks, hashrate, and difficulty. This infrastructure support move further demonstrates Foundry’s long-term commitment and intended investment in the Zcash ecosystem.

Judging from market reactions, Zcash’s price has risen by more than 75% in total since Foundry previewed its mining pool plan in March, significantly outperforming the overall crypto market’s increase of about 7% during the same period. The privacy coin sector represented by Zcash has also seen a systemic rebound: DASH surged by more than 50% over the week, and the privacy sector is experiencing its strongest round of capital inflows since 2021.

A six-month-long strategic layout

Foundry’s entry into Zcash is not an isolated event, but a snapshot of the systematic recovery of the privacy sector. Tracing the timeline shows that this event is the result of multiple narrative threads converging in spring 2026:

January 2026: Regulatory constraints lifted. The U.S. SEC officially ended its two-year investigation into the Zcash Foundation with no charges filed. This outcome removed the regulatory cloud hanging over Zcash since August 2023, clearing a key obstacle for institutional capital to enter.

January 2026: The privacy sector receives backing from top-tier capital. The original Zcash core development team set up a separate entity, the Zcash Open Development Laboratory, and received a $25 million seed investment from investors including a16z Crypto and Coinbase Ventures. The focus is on Zodl wallet development and ecosystem expansion.

March 2026: Foundry previews its Zcash mining pool plan. After the announcement, Zcash’s price began to rise significantly. The market gave positive pricing to the signal of “institutional-grade infrastructure entering.”

Early April 2026: On-chain whales concentrate their accumulation. Around April 1, Zcash recorded net capital inflows of more than $10 million within 48 hours, mainly driven by large investors. On-chain data shows that this capital was concentratedly injected into a small number of major wallets, and spot exchange net flows were negative in the same period—exhibiting a typical long-term allocation pattern.

Early April 2026: The privacy coin sector erupts across the board. On April 10, DASH jumped 30% in a single day to 34%, leading the entire privacy sector. ZEC’s week-over-week increase reached 49%, and during the same period there were $41.46 million in derivatives fund inflows into privacy-coin-related assets. Behind this sector rotation, factors such as Western Union’s acquisition of Dash wallets and the Iran–U.S. ceasefire triggering a rebound in risk appetite converged.

April 13, 2026: Foundry officially launches the Zcash mining pool. On the same day, the SEC officially announced the end of its investigation into Zcash. With the dual positive catalysts stacked, market focus on the privacy track was further strengthened.

As of April 14, 2026, according to Gate’s market data, Zcash is $357.75, with a 30-day increase of 64.38% and a one-year increase of 866.93%; DASH is $40.4, with a 7-day increase of 34.51% and a one-year increase of 94.67%; Monero is $347.41, with a market cap of approximately $6.4 billion. The synchronized strength of the three major privacy coins, contrasted with the relatively modest gains of Bitcoin and Ethereum over the same period, clearly shows that the independent market logic of the privacy sector is being realized.

The logic of hash rate migration by mining giants

First, scale of hashrate. Foundry’s Bitcoin mining pool currently controls about 31% of the global Bitcoin hashrate, making it the largest Bitcoin mining pool operator in the world. After its Zcash mining pool went live, it quickly captured about 30% of the network’s total hashrate share, becoming the largest single mining pool operator within the Zcash ecosystem.

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

Third, technical architecture. Zcash uses the same PoW consensus mechanism as Bitcoin and runs on the Equihash algorithm. This means that Bitcoin miners can relatively easily switch part of their hashrate to the Zcash network.

Foundry’s logic for entering Zcash can be broken down into three dimensions.

From an asset allocation perspective, institutional funds are seeking sources of yield beyond Bitcoin. Foundry expects its Bitcoin mining pool customers to allocate part of their hashrate to Zcash. In essence, this is a “hashrate diversification” strategy: without significantly increasing infrastructure costs, it seeks additional returns by participating in different PoW networks.

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

From a market signal perspective, as a subsidiary of DCG, Foundry’s strategic decisions to some extent reflect the parent company’s judgment about industry trends. DCG founder Barry Silbert publicly stated at New York Bitcoin Investor Week that in the coming years, 5% to 10% of Bitcoin capital will flow into privacy cryptocurrencies represented by Zcash. Foundry’s action can be seen as a concrete implementation of that judgment at the mining infrastructure level.

One trend worth paying attention to is that Foundry may not be the only mining giant focused on the privacy sector. As Zcash’s price continues to strengthen and hashrate yields become more attractive, other mainstream mining pool operators may follow by laying out infrastructure for privacy-coin PoW networks. If this trend materializes, the hashrate distribution of the Zcash network could face a reshuffle, and hashrate concentration could also change. However, this speculation would need to meet the following conditions: Zcash’s price remains at a relatively high level; institutional miners’ willingness to allocate to the privacy track continues to increase; and the regulatory environment does not undergo an adverse reversal.

Media sentiment analysis: divergence and consensus across three narratives

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

The victory of institutional-compliance privacy

This narrative holds that Zcash’s core competitive advantage lies in its “optional privacy” architecture: users can independently choose transparent transactions or shielded transactions via zk-SNARKs, while also supporting selective disclosure to meet regulatory requirements. Compared with Monero’s “mandatory anonymity” design, Zcash provides compliance-operational space for institutional clients. A ChainCatcher analysis article notes 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 “an adversary of regulation” into “a support for compliance.” Foundry’s choice of Zcash over other privacy coins is interpreted as a strategic vote for this compliance route.

Concerns about hashrate centralization

Not all voices are optimistic. As Foundry’s Zcash mining pool quickly captures about 30% of the network’s hashrate share, some analysts suggest that the Zcash network faces the risk of excessive concentration of hashrate in a single entity, which could challenge the network’s long-term decentralization and security. Previously, the Zcash mining pool ecosystem was relatively dispersed. While Foundry’s entry provides institutional-grade hashrate support, it also changes the hashrate distribution landscape.

Capital rotation in the privacy sector

Some market observers believe that the recent collective rise in privacy coins is more the result of capital rotation than a sustained fundamentals-driven trend. Analysis indicates that Bitcoin and Ethereum rose by about 8% and 9%, respectively, over the same period, while privacy coins’ gains far exceeded those of mainstream assets—suggesting that funds are flowing from large-cap blue chips into privacy sectors where valuations are relatively lower and the narrative has not yet been fully priced. DASH’s 30% single-day surge, accompanied by $41.46 million in derivatives fund inflows into privacy-related assets, also reflects the concentrated establishment of speculative positions. The core disagreement under this narrative is: is the privacy coin rally the beginning of a structural recovery, or the outcome of short-term capital games?

The tension between narratives itself reflects that the privacy sector is at a turning point

The tension among the three narratives is precisely indicative of the issue at hand: when a sector moves from the margins to the mainstream, it inevitably brings disputes over compliance pathways, trade-offs between centralization and decentralization, and the battle between speculation and long-term allocation. Foundry’s choice represents a pragmatic compromise: it connects an asset network that combines privacy functions with possible compliance, built on PoW—the most “Bitcoin-like” consensus mechanism.

Industry impact analysis: from the mining landscape to sector valuation

Impact on the mining landscape

Foundry’s entry into Zcash marks a shift by mining infrastructure operators from “single-asset dependence” to “multi-asset deployment.” Previously, Bitcoin mining pool operators almost concentrated all their resources on the Bitcoin network, while PoW privacy coins such as Zcash long lacked institutional-grade mining pool services. Foundry’s entry fills this gap, and it also provides a replicable business template for other mining giants. If this model is validated, hashrate infrastructure for PoW privacy-coin networks could undergo systematic upgrades, improving network security and its ability to resist attacks.

Impact on the valuation logic of the privacy sector

The valuation logic of the privacy sector is undergoing reshaping. In the past, privacy coins were marginalized by mainstream exchanges and regulators because of their “anonymity,” with their market caps suppressed at very low levels. Zcash’s current market cap is approximately $5.97 billion, representing only about 0.22% of the entire crypto market—far below its potential value as foundational financial privacy infrastructure. With institutional infrastructure service providers such as Foundry entering, SEC investigations ending, and the push forward of Grayscale ETF applications, the privacy sector’s “regulatory discount” is being gradually eliminated.

A key variable is the progress of Zcash integrating with major exchanges and payment networks. Currently, Zcash is advancing technical integration with multiple trading platforms, aiming to complete it by the end of April. Once completed, Zcash’s liquidity depth and accessibility will increase significantly, forming a positive feedback loop: “liquidity improvement → increased institutional attention → capital inflow → further liquidity improvement.”

Impact on participants

For ordinary users, Foundry’s entry brings at least two effects. First, Zcash network security is significantly enhanced by the injection of institutional-grade hashrate, greatly increasing the cost of a 51% attack. Second, as attention on Zcash rises and exchange integrations advance, the barriers for users to obtain and trade Zcash are lowering. On mainstream platforms such as Gate.io, users can already directly participate in buying and selling Zcash and privacy assets such as DASH via spot trading pairs.

Three possible paths for the privacy sector

Scenario 1: Institutional-compliance privacy becomes mainstream

If a Grayscale Zcash Trust spot ETF is approved, Foundry’s mining pool continues to attract institutional hashrate, and more traditional financial institutions include Zcash in their asset allocation portfolios, the privacy sector would take a path that is completely different from Monero’s “mandatory anonymity” assets—moving toward a compliance-oriented route. In this scenario, Zcash could become a standard “privacy layer” in institutional crypto asset portfolios, and its market cap could expand further from the current level of around $6 billion. Key indicators include: the progress of Grayscale ETF approvals, on-chain accumulation trends of institutional wallets, and changes in Zcash’s liquidity depth on mainstream exchanges.

Scenario 2: Hashrate concentration triggers governance disputes

If Foundry’s hashrate share continues to expand to 40% and even above 50%, the Zcash community could face deep struggles between hashrate centralization and network security. Historically, Bitcoin has also experienced governance debates about hashrate centralization, but Bitcoin’s huge network scale and diversified mining pool ecosystem gave it strong self-regulating capacity. As a comparatively smaller network, Zcash has relatively limited experience dealing with hashrate concentration. If disputes escalate, it could lead to community splits or adjustments to technical roadmaps. Key indicators include: the trend in Foundry’s hashrate share, changes in hashrate among other mining pools, and shifts in governance proposals within the Zcash community.

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 significantly divided. In early 2026, India’s financial intelligence department ordered domestic exchanges to stop supporting Zcash, Monero, and DASH. This means the privacy sector still faces “fragmentation” challenges across the global regulatory map: while the U.S. provides some regulatory room for compliance, other jurisdictions may maintain or even strengthen restrictions. If regulatory disagreement intensifies, liquidity differences across markets will be amplified, affecting global pricing efficiency. Key indicators include: policy directions toward privacy coins in major jurisdictions, listing and delisting decisions by leading exchanges, and the speed at which Zcash’s use cases are implemented within compliance frameworks.

Conclusion: the privacy sector’s “infrastructure moment”

Foundry’s entry into Zcash mining is, in essence, an event where “infrastructure operators vote for a narrative sector” with their hashrate. The mining giant’s decision reflects a basic judgment that PoW privacy coins have long-term intrinsic value. The logic behind this choice is not complicated: when institutional capital begins to treat financial privacy as a core need rather than a marginal tool, the underlying network that carries this need must be supported by institutional-grade infrastructure to operate. Foundry’s entry precisely fills the gap in the Zcash ecosystem’s infrastructure layer.

However, it must be noted that Foundry’s entry is a necessary condition for the structural recovery of the privacy sector, but not a sufficient one. Whether privacy coins can truly move beyond the positioning of “niche tools” depends on whether technical iteration can continuously meet compliance needs, whether institutional capital can form sustained allocation, and whether global regulatory frameworks can provide stable development expectations. For industry participants, Foundry’s choice offers a window to observe strategic shifts—major industry players’ moves are rarely impulsive, and more often the result of long-term industry judgment and risk trade-offs.