Bitcoin Mining in 2025: The Race for Dominance – Who’s Winning the Hash War?

The bitcoin mining landscape is a high-stakes game of computational power—and 2025’s mid-year showdown reveals who’s pulling ahead.

The Contenders: Old Guard vs. New Players

Legacy miners are doubling down on efficiency, while fresh entrants exploit next-gen rigs and cheap energy havens. The result? A hash rate battle that’s tighter than a whale’s stop-loss.

Geopolitics Meets Proof-of-Work

Regulatory shifts and energy arbitrage are reshaping the board. Some nations court miners with subsidies; others ban them like a shady ICO. Guess who’s laughing? The firms with portable rigs and diplomatic leverage.

The Bottom Line: Follow the Watts

Profit margins now hinge on who corners the market on stranded power—or invents a rig that mines during bear markets (still waiting). One thing’s clear: by 2026, the leaderboard won’t just reflect hash rate—it’ll reveal who outmaneuvered the rest. And yes, Wall Street will still call it a ‘bubble’ while quietly accumulating.

Hashrate trends

The launch of next-generation ASIC Miners such as the ANTMINER S23 Hyd., ANTMINER S23 Imm., and SEALMINER A2 Pro Hyd. triggered a new round of “arms race” in the 2025 mining market. These machines brought major upgrades in terms of hashrate performance, energy efficiency, and cooling systems. However, their high prices raised the entry threshold, pushing the industry further toward capital-intensive operations. Leading mining pools and large-scale mining farms are leveraging their resource advantages to strengthen their dominance in the industry.

Top-tier mining pools such as Foundry USA, AntPool, ViaBTC, F2Pool, and Binance Pool continue to control around 80% of the global bitcoin hashrate. As new hashrate continues to be added across the industry, these pools are also seeing steady hashrate growth. The hashrate growth trend is shown in the chart below:

Source: explorer.cloverpool

• Foundry USA’s average hashrate at the beginning of the year was 279.7 EH/s. By June, the average hashrate reached 283.4 EH/s, an increase of 1.3%.
• AntPool’s average hashrate at the beginning of the year was 146.1 EH/s. By June, it rose to 170.3 EH/s, an increase of 16.5%.
• ViaBTC’s average hashrate at the beginning of the year was 118.2 EH/s. By June, it reached 121.5 EH/s, up 2.8%.
• F2Pool’s average hashrate at the beginning of the year was 87.2 EH/s. By June, it rose to 96.6 EH/s, an increase of 10.8%.
• Binance Pool’s average hashrate at the beginning of the year was 53.5 EH/s. By June, it reached 62.2 EH/s, marking a 16.7% increase.

Block mining analysis

Although in theory, a higher hashrate increases the probability of mining a block, the actual number of blocks mined is the key factor that directly impacts miner earnings. This is especially true for miners using the PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares) payment method, where the pool’s real block output capacity directly determines their final revenue.

Source: mempool.space

According to data from the Mempool, a total of 26,510 Bitcoin blocks were mined from the beginning of the year through June. Among them:

• Foundry USA mined 8,434 blocks, accounting for 31.81% of the total.
• AntPool mined 4,918 blocks, accounting for 18.55%.
• ViaBTC mined 3,680 blocks, accounting for 13.88%.
• F2Pool mined 2,778 blocks, accounting for 10.48%.
• Binance Pool mined 477 blocks, accounting for 1.8%.

As shown in the data above, except for some fluctuations in Binance Pool, the other four top mining pools performed relatively steadily overall. The large deviation between Binance Pool’s hashrate and block output rate indicates its lower-than-expected block production in practice.

In contrast, Foundry USA, AntPool, ViaBTC, and F2Pool demonstrated a strong correlation between hashrate and actual block output, highlighting their technical strengths in mining infrastructure and network optimization. Generally, the more stable a pool is, the more predictable the miner’s income becomes, which also enhances brand trust among miners.

Market overview

In the first half of 2025, top mining pools have not only continued to strengthen their hashrate deployment but also actively expanded their brand and ecosystem in a bid to compete for global miner resources and industry influence.

Join the event at: https://www.viabtc.com/activity/9th-anniversary

ViaBTC made a significant MOVE in security and compliance by passing the internationally recognized SOC 2 Type I audit, reinforcing its trust and brand image among global users. In June, ViaBTC launched its 9th-anniversary global celebration with the “Complete the Puzzle, Unlock $69,999” event, featuring community engagement through daily check-ins, quizzes, and voting activities. It also actively participated in global industry forums, including Blockchain Forum 2025, Mining Disrupt 2025, and Bitcoin Conference 2025, expanding its international presence.

In addition, AntPool and F2Pool have also been proactive in business development and user incentives in the first half of 2025. AntPool launched a limited-time promotion for BTC and LTC mining rig buyers, offering 90 days of zero-fee mining for eligible participants. F2Pool has expanded beyond mining by rolling out staking services in collaboration with stake.fish, supporting multi-token staking including ETH, CFX, SOL, NEAR, and BTC through Babylon Network—offering miners more options for asset growth and management.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, the mining industry may enter a new phase of intensified competition. With Bitcoin prices recovering since June, both miners and institutional investors are regaining confidence, sidelined capital is reentering the market, and investment is accelerating in crypto mining. As a result, the competition between pools will go beyond hashrate, encompassing service capabilities, technical strength, and ecosystem integration. Whoever strikes the right balance will gain the upper hand in the evolving landscape.