Japanese Mining Pool Shutdown Sends Shockwaves as 3 Giants Seize 60% of Bitcoin Network

Warning signals are flashing across the Bitcoin network as SBI Crypto abruptly terminated its mining pool operations in Japan on July 31, coinciding with a staggering power grab by Foundry USA, AntPool, and F2Pool that now controls 60% of recent block production. The sudden shutdown, which came after SBI's seven-day average hashrate plummeted 64% in just one month, has ignited fears of centralization risks that could trigger a 10% correction in BTC's price as miners scramble to reassess their positions in an increasingly concentrated landscape.

Related Reading

A rare Bitcoin reorg just showed why six confirmations may not guarantee a final payment

A rare two-block reorg and the rise of a dominant mining pool are reviving the question of how “irreversible” is a Bitcoin payment. Mar 25, 2026 · Gino Matos

SBI Crypto's official update set the first cutoff at 22:00 UTC on July 30, or 07:00 JST on July 31. Share acceptance stopped, and miners began a graceful disconnect. The company scheduled a full Stratum shutdown by 23:59:59 UTC. Its website would stay open for historical data and payout status. The final payout schedule remained unspecified, as did the end dates for API and portal access.

At about 11:22 UTC on July 31, Foundry held 26.67% of attributed blocks, AntPool 17.13% and F2Pool 16.21%. SBI Crypto was down to 0.72%, or an estimated 6.8 exahashes per second. The dashboard moved again within minutes. The 60.01% reading captures a moment, rather than a lasting level of control.

Related Reading

84% of BTC hashrate secured Bitcoin DeFi in Q1, but miners saw little fee upside

Rootstock’s Q1 report shows a large share of Bitcoin hashrate securing smart-contract infrastructure, but fees and usage still decide whether that security becomes economically meaningful. May 21, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

SBI Crypto's daily telemetry charted a month-long retreat. Its seven-day average BTC hashrate dropped from 16.222 EH/s for the period ending June 30 to 5.817 EH/s for the period ending July 30. By 11:17 UTC on July 31, separate operational statistics put the 24-hour average at about 0.452 EH/s. SBI's official block list showed July 29 as its latest block.

The top three were already above 60%

Matched weekly buckets from mempool.space put Foundry, AntPool and F2Pool at a combined 64.8039% for July 20, then 60.7843% in the still-incomplete July 27 bucket. SBI Crypto's share fell from 0.9804% to 0.6192%. The top tier had cleared 60% before the cutoff. The July 27 bucket spans the shutdown and remains incomplete, leaving any immediate concentration effect unmeasured.

Individual pool movements pulled in different directions. Foundry, AntPool and F2Pool each showed lower estimated hashrate in the partial July 27 bucket than in the prior week.

Luxor rose, Braiins fell, and NeoPool was absent. Pool-share records reflect work credited to a service.

Thus, the routes behind SBI Crypto's lost pool hashrate stay hidden in these aggregate totals.

Related Reading

Foundry mined over a third of all Bitcoin blocks in the past week

In a market dominated by a few, Foundry and AntPool together claim control over half the Bitcoin blocks. Jan 28, 2025 · Andjela Radmilac