The US accounts for over 40% of the world’s Bitcoin hashrate: report
The United States will hold more than 40% of the Bitcoin network's global hashrate – the total computing power of the Bitcoin protocol – by the end of 2024, while two US-based mining pools, Foundry USA and Mara Pool, will hold more than 38.5%. All blocks are mined.
According to TheMinerMag, Foundry USA grew from 157 exhashes per second (EH/s) in early 2024 to 280 EH/s by December.
The Foundry is currently the single largest mining pool by hashrate, controlling 36.5 percent of the total hashrate in the Bitcoin network.
Data from Hashrate Index shows that MARA Pool currently commands approximately 32 EH/s or 4.35% of the total hash power. Despite increasing computing power, China-based mining pools control most of the world's hashrate.
Market share of hash power by mining pool. Source: TheMinerMag
Related: Bitcoin hashrate is at an all-time high.
Hashrate's dominance attracts debate
In September, CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Yang Ju pointed out that despite a ban on crypto in 2021, Chinese mining pools control 55% of the world's hashrate.
Chinese miners can bypass the ban by using virtual private networks (VPNs) that mask their IP addresses to connect to mining pools.
Additionally, peer-to-peer apps also allow Chinese residents to bypass national firewalls and exchange cryptocurrencies.
The geographic distribution of miners—especially the smaller miners involved in mining pools—also makes it difficult to estimate true hashrate dominance.
Mining pools may be headquartered in one country, but may rely on computing power provided by miners outside the jurisdiction, TheMinerMag wrote in a September 2024 article.
Estimate the breakdown of hash power by country in the last 30 days. Source: Hashrate Index
It has created a threat to the centrality of Hashret.
The amount of computing power in a collection of small mining pools has raised alarm among industry executives.
In October, Rajiv Kemani, founder and CEO of mining chip maker Oradin, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin's decentralization is a matter of national security.
Auradin's CEO warned that critical mining infrastructure such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) should not be manufactured by a single jurisdiction to avoid supply chain risks.
Kemani added that in order for the decentralized currency to be as independent as possible, no country should control the majority of the Bitcoin network hashrate.
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