At the end of 2024, the United States emerged as a major player in Bitcoin mining, accounting for over 40% of the global Bitcoin network’s hashrate, which is the total computing power used to secure the Bitcoin protocol. Two U.S.-based mining pools, Foundry USA and MARA Pool, were significant contributors, responsible for more than 38.5% of all Bitcoin blocks mined. Foundry USA notably increased its hashrate from 157 exahashes per second (EH/s) at the start of the year to around 280 EH/s by December, making it the largest mining pool by hashrate, controlling approximately 36.5% of the network’s total.
MARA Pool currently holds about 32 EH/s, representing 4.35% of the total hash power. Despite the growth in U.S. mining power, Chinese mining pools still hold the majority share globally. This situation persists even after China’s 2021 ban on crypto activities, as miners can bypass restrictions through virtual private networks (VPNs) and peer-to-peer applications.
The geographic distribution of mining pools, often obscured by miners participating from various locations around the world, complicates the assessment of true hashrate dominance. Mining experts point out that pools may have headquarters in a specific country but rely on worldwide computational contributions.
The concentration of hashrate in a few large pools has raised concerns among industry leaders. Rajiv Khemani, CEO of mining chip manufacturer Auradine, emphasized the importance of decentralization for national security. He argued that relying on a single jurisdiction for manufacturing critical mining technology could lead to supply chain vulnerabilities. Khemani also stressed that no nation should have majority control over the Bitcoin network’s hashrate, in order to maintain the currency’s decentralized and neutral nature.
