Foundry USA Is Now The Second Largest Bitcoin Miner In The World, Controlling 15 Percent Of Network Share

Bitcoin mining is becoming a very promising industry. (photo; doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - New York-based crypto-mining service provider Foundry USA has become the world's second-largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool, having taken up 15.42% of the network's share.

Data from BTC.com shows that Digital Currency Group's Foundry USA stands behind pool leader AntPool with a hash rate of just 4,000 PH/s, which contributes to the network's 17.76% share at the time of writing.

The increased participation of American entities can be attributed to the recent comprehensive ban from the Chinese government on crypto trading and mining activities. The ban forced a massive migration of local Bitcoin miners, who now live in crypto-friendly jurisdictions including the United States, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Of the top five mining pools in terms of hash rate distribution, Foundry USA earned the highest average mining reward of 0.09418116 BTC (nearly US$5,500) per block. According to Foundry USA VP Kevin Zhang, "we redistribute block rewards to miners via a Full-Pay-Per-Share (FPPS) payment scheme, and our pool fees are actually 0%." American businesses are also taking a weakness from China when it comes to the distribution of crypto ATMs.

Coin ATM Radar data shows that Georgia-based Bitcoin Depot has surpassed its Chinese counterparts to become the world's largest crypto ATM operator. Interestingly enough, the majority of crypto ATM operators are run by US companies, a trend that is more prominent after China's proactive ban on crypto activity.

Apart from the clear intention to pursue an internal central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Chinese Communist Party has also sought public opinion on the Bitcoin mining ban on October 21, which has sparked conversation around amending the government's negative stance on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining activities.

However, Statista data confirms that China's contribution to the Bitcoin mining hash rate has been on a steady decline since September 2019. Two years ago, China represented more than 75% of the Bitcoin mining hash rate, which in April 2021 was reduced to 46% before the cryptocurrency ban.

As the United States is inching toward mainstream Bitcoin adoption, regulators are seeking clarity with regards to new reporting requirements proposed by President Joe Biden's administration.

Republicans and Democrats have appealed, on numerous occasions, to amend crypto tax reporting reforms along with pleas to redefine the word “broker” in crypto transactions.

Starting in 2024, the bipartisan infrastructure bill requires the general public to declare digital asset transactions worth more than US$10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service. The current bill considers miners and validators, hardware and software developers, and protocol developers as brokers.