The largest hash rate sharing mining pool will no longer offer its services for free, according to a notice sent to customers.
Foundry, the bitcoin mining arm of Digital Currency Group, will stop providing its services for free, according to a notice distributed to customers like reported by Bloomberg.
The company has been offering its mining pool services for free since 2019, which has contributed to its significant growth, now holding the largest share of the hash rate estimated at over 30%.
The notice states that the mining pool fee will be tiered based on the average hashrate of the previous quarter. The change is expected to go into effect between April 19 and April 22.
DCG’s crypto lending unit Genesis has filed for bankruptcy as one of the last dominoes resulting from the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange.
Bitcoin mining companies have faced a turbulent 2022, with many “fighting for survival,” as Bitcoin Magazine PRO analysts put it. But despite necessary steps like state-owned mining giant Marathon Digital selling bitcoin for the first time in company history, some good news came out of the industry as 2023 takes off, like the announcement of mining of the Terawulf nuclear facility, the planned expansion of 50 MW CleanSpark and more.
This move by Foundry may be a reinforcement effort designed to better mitigate the impacts of seasons like the one in late 2022.