Bitmain’s Antpool has surpassed Foundry USA to become the leading Bitcoin mining pool for the first time since January 2022.
According to Bitcoin network data, Antpool mined 1,219 blocks in November, slightly ahead of Foundry USA’s 1,216 blocks.
The total reward to Antpool miners was 8,672 BTC, excluding 83.6 BTC allocated for refunds.
See also: Antpool overtakes Foundry USA, recognized by TheMinerMag
Foundry’s parent company, Digital Current Group, continues to face challenges as new mining rigs from Bitmain flood the market.
Foundry USA has taken the top spot among mining pools since early 2022, riding the upward wave of North American mining operations following China’s 2021 crackdown.
Antpool, which has consistently held second place, began to close the gap in June.
This coincides with Bitmain’s bulk shipments of more than 4,800 tonnes of Antminer S19XP and S19XP Hydro to its US subsidiary in Georgia from June to November.
Estimated records show that the total hash rate for these deliveries exceeded 37EH/s.
The exact activation of the hashrate brought by Bitmain is still unclear, and the company temporarily suspended employee salaries in October due to “unsatisfactory performance indicators.”
This raises questions about whether Bitmain deployed the miners for its own benefit.
Despite Antpool leading in blocks mined, data from BTC.com shows a consistent lag in the company’s self-reported real-time hash rate compared to Foundry USA over the past three months.
The cause of this discrepancy remains unclear, whether it is a difference in luck or a reporting error.