A June 23, 2026 snapshot of Bitcoin mining pool data showed that four operators controlled more than 70% of the network’s hashrate, highlighting the continued concentration of a core part of the blockchain’s infrastructure.

Leading pools take larger share

The four pools identified in the snapshot were Foundry Digital, AntPool, ViaBTC, and F2Pool. Together, they represented over 70% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate, according to data referenced from miningpoolstats.stream. The figures add to ongoing concerns that Bitcoin mining, while globally distributed in hardware ownership, is becoming increasingly concentrated at the pool level.

Mining pools coordinate the work of many individual miners, allowing participants to combine computing power and receive more predictable payouts. As a result, the balance of influence among pools is closely watched as a measure of operational concentration across the network.

Institutional tilt in the pool market

The shift is described as contributing to a two-tier market in which the largest pools increasingly cater to institutional-scale customers. Foundry Digital, one of the dominant pools in the June snapshot, is based in the United States, backed by Digital Currency Group, and was built for large-scale operators. The source article says the company uses strict know-your-customer onboarding.

In that environment, smaller and mid-sized miners are said to face tighter competition. The article describes reduced responsiveness from major pools, along with the possibility of changing payout structures and support standards as operators optimize around larger clients.

Pressure on independent miners

The concentration trend is also prompting some independent miners to reassess where they direct their machines. Pool choice can affect payouts, fees, service levels, and operational flexibility, making the structure of the market important even for miners that do not control large shares of hashrate on their own.

The source article also notes that ViaBTC has faced regulatory scrutiny in 2026, though it does not specify further details in the extracted text. As an alternative, it mentions EMCD, which was described as having more than 30 EH/s of hashrate and fees starting at 1.5% under a full pay per share, or FPPS, model.

A broader centralization signal

The June pool snapshot fits a wider pattern cited earlier in 2026. At that time, Bitcoin mining’s Nakamoto coefficient stood at 3, according to the source article. That metric is used to estimate how many entities would be required to control more than half of a system’s activity. In this case, it suggested that only three mining pools were needed to account for more than half of Bitcoin blocks, even though the exact leading pools and their relative shares can change over time.

Taken together, the figures point to a mining landscape where a small group of pool operators continues to hold an outsized share of coordination power. While the network’s underlying miners remain diverse, the routing of hashrate through a handful of large pools has become a central issue in debates about Bitcoin’s decentralization.

Source: news.bitcoin.com