Bitmain-affiliated Antpool has overtaken Foundry USA as the largest bitcoin mining pool in terms of monthly blocks mined for the first time since January 2022.
According to bitcoin’s network data, Antpool mined 1,219 blocks in November, slightly surpassing Foundry USA’s 1,216 blocks mined and reaping total rewards of 8,672 BTC for its miner clients, excluding the 83.6 BTC allocated for refunds.
Foundry USA had maintained its leading position among mining pools since early 2022 thanks to the rise of North American mining operations after China’s crackdown in 2021.
Although Antpool consistently held the second position, its hashrate began narrowing the gap on Foundry USA around June this year. This trend coincided with Bitmain’s shipment of more than 4,800 metric tons of Antminer S19XP and S19XP Hydro to its U.S. subsidiary in Georgia between June and November, based on records from TheMinerMag. The total hashrate from these shipments is estimated to exceed 37 EH/s.
The exact amount of Bitmain’s imported hashrate that has been activated—especially by whom—remains unclear. Bitmain temporarily paused employee paychecks in October due to “unsatisfactory performance metrics regarding miner deployment at mining sites,” suggesting that Bitmain might have been deploying miners for itself.
Also noteworthy is that despite Antpool’s top position in blocks mined, data compiled by BTC.com shows the company’s self-reported real-time hashrate has consistently lagged behind Foundry USA’s over the past three months.
It remains uncertain whether this discrepancy is due to luck variance or if an error has caused Antpool’s real-time hashrate to be underreported.
