Key Insights:
- The Zcash crypto price jumps 41% weekly as institutional mining interest grows.
- Foundry launches Zcash mining pool, secures 30% network hashrate.
- Despite weekly and monthly gains, the token is down by a marginal 1.6% in a day.
The Zcash crypto is gaining fresh attention as institutional mining activity picks up. In the latest development, Foundry Digital launched a new ZEC mining pool, quickly capturing about 30% of the network’s hashrate.
Foundry Mining Pool Launch Drives Zcash Crypto Price Up
The latest report reveals that Foundry Digital, a major crypto mining pool operator, has launched a mining pool for the privacy-focused Zcash (ZEC).
Following the launch, the company added that the ZEC mining pool has already captured nearly 30% of the total network hashrate of Zcash through institutional partnerships.
On Monday, the team announced the mining pool launch via an X post. The company noted, “Institutional and public miners are seeking a compliant, purpose-built Zcash mining solution.”
In response to this strategic development, the Zcash crypto price has seen a significant uptick. Currently trading at $358.18, the token has soared by an impressive 41% in a week and 64% in a month.
However, the ZEC price was down by a marginal 1.6% in the last 24 hours. The Zcash crypto price recent drop comes despite a stronger overall crypto market, suggesting a short-term rotation within the sector.
Privacy coins like Zcash and Dash were among the weaker performers as traders booked profits after sharp weekly gains. It is important to note that the latest dip is not enough to erase its long-term gains.
The daily decline has also not impacted the overarching positive investor sentiment. This is understood from the 70% rise in the 24-hour trading volume, now at $804 million.
In addition to the ZEC mining pool launch, Foundry has also introduced a Zcash block explorer. This now shows that the pool has already mined 2,344 blocks since launching earlier this month.
This highlights the rapid growth of Foundry’s presence in the Zcash mining. It is worth noting that Zcash blocks are produced roughly every 75 seconds. Each block currently pays a reward of 1.25 ZEC, which is around $458 at current market prices.
Growing Shift in Zcash (ZEC) Mining Power
Generally, mining pools involve collecting computer power from multiple users and distributing the reward according to the contributions made by the miners.
With a mining pool, the process enables the miners to generate relatively constant rewards as opposed to mining alone, which is often associated with volatility.
The use of a crypto mining pool is particularly helpful in mining Zcash (ZEC) coins since miners are guaranteed to generate fairly constant rewards. Unlike solo mining, participants in the mining pool will be rewarded according to the computing power contributed.
The process of mining in the pool, therefore, minimizes the mining volatility and ensures more people participate in the network.
Foundry Digital, which also operates the largest Bitcoin mining pool, has not disclosed the names of the institutional miners behind its reported 29.2% share of the Zcash network hashrate.
Data from Zcashinfo.com suggests that Foundry may have started building up its hashrate as early as March 4, nearly a week before the official announcement. This points to early activity in the Zcash crypto network, even before the launch was publicly revealed.
The rapid rise of Foundry has also changed the competitive balance in the mining ecosystem. Rival pool ViaBTC has seen its dominance fall sharply from 68.1% on Feb. 27 to around 37% at present, showing a major redistribution of mining power across the network.