Publicly listed bitcoin miner Hut 8 Mining Corp. has announced that it is joining Foundry’s U.S.-based bitcoin mining pool, marking another notable step in the expansion of North American mining infrastructure. According to the company, 14,400 mining rigs have already been added to Foundry’s pool, representing approximately 0.81 exahashes per second (EH/s) of hashpower. Hut 8 also said it plans to deploy an additional 5,000 miners by August 2021.
North American Mining Capacity Gets a Boost
Hut 8, a Toronto-based mining firm listed on the public market, said the move aligns with its broader effort to strengthen shareholder value while building on its position as one of the largest and most innovative bitcoin miners in the Western Hemisphere. In the company’s view, access to a major bitcoin mining pool that is fully based and operated in North America carries strategic importance as the regional mining ecosystem continues to mature.
The pool operator, Foundry Digital LLC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG). Foundry focuses on services tied to cryptocurrency mining and staking, and has been building out a U.S.-centered platform intended to support miners with both operational and financial infrastructure. By bringing Hut 8’s fleet into the pool, Foundry strengthens its standing as a domestic alternative in a sector that has long been dominated by Chinese mining pools.
From 0.81 EH/s to a Projected 1.20 EH/s
The current deployment covers 14,400 machines, which the announcement says accounts for roughly 0.81 EH/s of hashpower. Hut 8’s expansion plan would push that figure significantly higher. Once the additional 5,000 miners are online and connected to Foundry’s U.S. pool, the total contribution is expected to rise to around 1.20 EH/s by August.
That planned increase is meaningful not only for Hut 8’s operating scale, but also for Foundry’s ambition to elevate North America’s profile in global bitcoin mining. Foundry CEO Mike Colyer said the company is working toward securing North America’s place among the world’s top five bitcoin mining pools, and Hut 8’s participation adds considerable weight to that effort.
Strategic Rationale Behind the Move
In comments included in the announcement, Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton emphasized that the company evaluates decisions through the lens of shareholder value creation. She said that having a formidable bitcoin mining pool entirely based and operated in North America is important to Hut 8 as it continues to scale its business. The statement reflects a broader industry theme: mining companies are increasingly paying attention not just to machine efficiency and electricity costs, but also to jurisdiction, infrastructure reliability, and access to regional service providers.
For miners, a pool relationship is more than a technical arrangement. Pool selection can affect payout stability, transparency, geographic diversification, and access to related financial products. In this case, Hut 8’s choice to direct a portion of its fleet to Foundry suggests confidence in the pool’s ability to support large-scale operations in a North American framework.
Foundry’s Broader Service Offering
Foundry noted that Hut 8 is also a client of its equipment financing business, indicating that the relationship extends beyond pool participation alone. This is notable because the institutionalization of bitcoin mining increasingly depends on bundled services that combine capital access, mining operations, treasury management, and risk tools.
The company also highlighted its Miner Treasury Management Services, which are linked to DCG subsidiary Genesis. These services include an option that allows clients to generate yield in bitcoin (BTC) on mined BTC, with the stated goal of maximizing the total BTC yield of mining operations. Additional Genesis-powered offerings mentioned in the announcement include high-security custody, BTC-collateralized lending, derivative products, and seamless liquidation.
For mining companies, such integrated services can be increasingly relevant in volatile markets. Operators may choose to hold mined bitcoin on balance sheet, borrow against it, hedge price exposure, or liquidate inventory efficiently depending on market conditions and treasury strategy. Foundry’s pitch appears designed to position the pool as part of a wider institutional mining stack rather than a standalone hashrate aggregation platform.
A Sign of Structural Change in Bitcoin Mining
While the announcement is centered on one company and one mining pool, it also points to a larger shift in the bitcoin mining sector. For years, the pool landscape was heavily concentrated in China, both in terms of operational influence and aggregate hashpower. Foundry explicitly described its pool as a strong U.S.-based alternative to that China-dominated structure.
Hut 8’s participation reinforces the idea that North America is building a more robust mining ecosystem with increasing access to machines, capital, hosting capacity, and financial services. The addition of nearly an exahash of hashrate to a U.S.-based pool is a concrete example of that trend. If the company completes its planned August deployment, the scale of its contribution would become even more significant.
Overall, the development highlights two parallel industry dynamics: Hut 8 is expanding its mining footprint and operational flexibility, while Foundry is growing its role as a strategic infrastructure provider for North American bitcoin miners. The combination of added hashpower, planned fleet expansion, and integrated treasury services underscores how mining is evolving from a hardware-only business into a more mature, service-rich sector.