Since January 3, 2009, the Bitcoin network has generated over 910,000 blocks, with nine known mining pools having mined 48.78% of them. Below are the top ten companies that have mined 673,848 blocks, which is nearly three-quarters of all blocks created since the network began.
In the early days of Bitcoin, mining was done solo, with some participants having a higher hashrate than others. Hardware evolved from central processing units (CPUs) to graphics processing units (GPUs) and eventually to modern application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). In late 2010, Marek Palatinus, also known as Slush, launched the first publicly recognized Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool, called Slush Pool, which has since been renamed Braiins Pool.
Below is a detailed overview of the top ten mining companies, the number of blocks they have found, and the organizations associated with them.
This category covers anonymous miners whose names remain hidden in Coinbase transactions. These include Satoshi Nakamoto, early Bitcoin community members, and other unknown participants who played a role in the creation of the network. While many of these blocks were mined before organized pools became common practice, some are still found by anonymous miners, although this practice is becoming increasingly rare.
Antpool is one of the largest and oldest mining pools in the industry. Formerly under the direct control of Bitmain, Antpool no longer operates under their control, but retains close ties. Antpool has long been a significant contributor to Bitcoin’s computing power and still ranks second in hashrate, behind Foundry.
Founded in China in 2013, F2pool, originally known as Discus Fish, has become a leading multi-functional mining pool. Over the years, it has mined a significant share of blocks and continues to be one of the most influential pools, supporting a wide range of cryptocurrency networks beyond Bitcoin.
Foundry USA, a US-based mining pool backed by Foundry Digital, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, has been rapidly gaining popularity since 2020. Thanks to the mining boom in North America and growing institutional interest, it currently ranks fourth in terms of the number of blocks found in history, but leads the industry in hashrate as of 2025. Foundry has accounted for about 32.42% of the total network hashrate over the past three days.
ViaBTC is a Chinese mining pool founded by Haipo Yang in May 2016. It quickly gained popularity due to its innovative services and robust support for multiple coins. ViaBTC has introduced innovative payment methods such as PPS+, an industry first, and supports mining for over 20 cryptocurrencies including BTC, LTC, BCH, ETH, and KAS. ViaBTC currently serves over 1.7 million users in over 150 countries, maintaining a leading position in hashrate.
Founded by Marek Palatinus in November 2010 (originally under the name Bitcoin.cz or Slush Pool), Braiins Pool was the world’s first public Bitcoin mining pool. It introduced pool mining with an innovative Slush-style resource allocation system that allows miners to pool computing power and earn predictable rewards. Today, Braiins Pool remains a key player in the industry, known for its transparency, use of protocols such as Stratum V2, and contribution to the decentralization of mining.
Launched in 2011, BTC Guild quickly gained popularity as one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools, sometimes controlling over 40% of the network’s hashrate. Led by software developer Michael Marcy, the pool played a major role in Bitcoin’s rise by providing small miners with reliable payouts. However, faced with growing regulatory uncertainty and increasing competition in the industry, the pool officially closed in June 2015 after four years of influence.
Founded in 2017 by former B executives
Source: cryptonews.net
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *