Onchain statistics tracked by Cloverpool, the mining pool and platform previously often called btc.com, present an entity labeled “unknown” sitting atop the all-time block rely with 230,770 blocks mined, equal to 24.03% of each block the community has ever produced.
That determine locations the unknown class forward of each named pool working at this time, together with business leaders Antpool and F2pool. The unknown label, nevertheless, doesn’t level to a single firm or individual. It covers two distinct teams of miners.
Two Sorts of Unknown Miners
The primary group contains solo miners and small operations that by no means inserted an figuring out tag into the coinbase message, the small knowledge area miners can use to signal their blocks. Some swimming pools and particular person miners have traditionally left that area clean or stuffed it with generic textual content, leaving the block unattributed in explorer knowledge.
The second group covers the Bitcoin community’s earliest years, earlier than pooled mining existed in any organized kind. That period contains the blocks mined by Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who mined largely alone on a house laptop in 2009 and early 2010. Researchers have lengthy estimated Nakamoto’s personal holdings close to a million $BTC, a determine drawn from patterns in early block rewards that stay untouched to today.
Antpool and F2pool Spherical Out the Prime Three
Behind the unknown class, Antpool ranks second with 109,004 blocks, or 11.35% of the whole. The pool, as soon as operated by Bitmain, the ASIC producer based by Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan, launched in 2013 and 2014 to help the corporate’s Antminer {hardware} prospects. Antpool was established as a standalone entity working independently abroad in 2021.
F2pool sits in third place with 98,148 blocks mined, about 10.22% of all blocks found. Based in Could 2013 by Chun Wang and Mao Shixing, F2pool is extensively considered China’s oldest main public bitcoin pool and briefly managed between 25% and 30% of community hashrate after overtaking Ghash.IO in 2014.
Foundry USA and the Submit-China Shift
Foundry USA, the Digital Forex Group (DCG) subsidiary that now leads the community by present hashrate share, ranks fourth on the all-time block record with 72,569 blocks, or 7.56%. The bitcoin mining pool launched quietly in late 2020 and expanded quickly after China’s 2021 mining crackdown pushed hashrate towards North America. Foundry now serves publicly traded miners, and sometimes instructions greater than 1 / 4 of the dwell community hashrate, regardless that its block whole trails older swimming pools due to its later begin.
Older Swimming pools Maintain Historic Weight
ViaBTC, based by former Tencent engineer Haipo Yang in 2016, has mined 52,116 blocks, 5.43% of the whole. Braiins Pool, previously often called Slushpool, the world’s oldest constantly working public pool, dates to November 2010 underneath founder Marek Palatinus and has produced 41,969 blocks, 4.37% of all blocks discovered.
Two defunct swimming pools nonetheless carry significant weight within the historic rely. $BTC Guild, shut down in 2015 amid regulatory considerations and rising competitors, mined 32,935 blocks, 3.43% of the whole, throughout its run from 2011 to 2015. Ghash.IO briefly exceeded 50% of community hashrate in June 2014, an occasion that triggered widespread concern over a potential 51% assault, earlier than winding down mining operations fully in October 2016. It holds 23,083 blocks, or 2.40%.
Poolin’s Chapter Provides Context
Poolin, as soon as the world’s largest pool by September 2019, has mined 28,039 blocks, 2.92% of the whole. The pool’s pockets arm suspended withdrawals in September 2022 and issued IOUs to roughly 11,700 prospects totaling about $163.7 million. In July 2026, Poolin Know-how and its U.S. associates filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety in New Jersey after ceasing operations at its West Texas websites, with the submitting centered on a $52 million stalking-horse bid for these properties.
Cloverpool itself, the rebranded type of $BTC.com since September 2024, has mined 41,451 blocks, 2.35% of the whole. Binance Pool, launched in April 2020, holds 22,005 blocks, 2.29%. Bitfury, higher identified at this time for its shift towards AI and high-performance computing, holds 19,513 blocks, 2.03%.
Why the Numbers Matter
The focus of blocks within the unknown class is a reminder that Bitcoin’s earliest historical past stays solely partly documented. Coinbase message attribution relies upon fully on miners selecting to determine themselves, and no protocol rule requires it. For researchers finding out wealth focus, dormant pockets exercise, and the dimensions of Nakamoto’s personal holdings, the unknown block rely is the closest obtainable proxy for that unresolved historical past.
For the broader mining business, the present prime 4 swimming pools by dwell hashrate, Foundry, Antpool, F2pool, and ViaBTC, collectively management the massive majority of latest blocks, producing a Nakamoto coefficient close to three. That focus, paired with the historic file of Ghash.IO’s near-majority run in 2014 and Poolin’s collapse, continues to form how regulators, institutional miners, and crypto’s broader neighborhood weigh the dangers of pooled hashrate.
