Cypherpunk Mining said it has officially launched and that its 4.2 Gsol/s of Equihash hashrate deployed in the United States has made it the world’s largest Zcash miner. The company said the scale came through a $33.333333 million asset purchase agreement with Winklevoss Capital, under which it took over a fleet of Bitmain Z15 Pro miners that had previously been deployed across multiple U.S. locations. Cypherpunk said the operation is currently producing about 7,800 ZEC per month and is already cash-flow positive. The company also said current revenue per unit of electricity from Zcash mining is about twice that of AI data center hosting and three times that of Bitcoin mining, while equipment capital expenditures remain far below those required for AI infrastructure. It added that it has no debt and plans to gradually expand vertical integration into data center and power assets.

256 Foundation has launched its 256 Red Team security effort to audit ASIC miner firmware, according to a post shared by Bitcoin News on X. The group said it used reverse engineering, live traffic capture, and share-level reconciliation in its review process. The team reported that it has filed 41 issue reports covering stock Bitmain firmware as well as third-party options including LuxOS, VNISH, and Braiins OS. The issues identified include unauthenticated factory APIs, paths that can grant root access, default credentials, embedded vendor SSH keys, and update tools that cannot verify what is being installed. After decompiling Bitmain miner daemons and examining live connections, the researchers said they found no evidence of hashpower skimming, remote kill switches, or covert beacons in Bitmain’s stock firmware. They said the main concerns were concentrated in third-party “optimization” firmware instead. The researchers have sent three responsible disclosures to VNISH, Luxor, and Braiins, giving each party 30 days to respond before public disclosure. Future audits are planned for MicroBT, Canaan, Auradine, Bitdeer, and ePIC.

Bitcoin News said in a post on X that 256 Foundation has launched the 256 Red Team, a security effort focused on auditing ASIC miner firmware. The project uses reverse engineering, live traffic capture, and share-level reconciliation to inspect firmware behavior. According to the team, it has filed 41 issue reports covering Bitmain’s stock firmware as well as third-party options including LuxOS, VNISH, and Braiins OS. Reported findings include unauthenticated factory APIs, paths that can lead to root access, default credentials, embedded vendor SSH keys, and update mechanisms that cannot verify what is being installed. After decompiling Bitmain’s miner daemon and reviewing live connections, researchers said they found no evidence in Bitmain’s original firmware of hashrate skimming, a remote kill switch, or covert beacons. They said the main risks were concentrated in third-party “optimization” firmware. The team has also sent three responsible disclosures to VNISH, Luxor, and Braiins, giving each party 30 days to respond before public disclosure. MicroBT, Canaan, Auradine, Bitdeer, and ePIC are set for later audits.

Fortitude Mining has signed an agreement with Bitmain to purchase 9,000 Antminer Z15 Pro machines for $31.5 million as it expands its Zcash mining business, according to Techub, citing Crypto Briefing. The company said the machines were bought at a unit price of $3,499, roughly $1,500 below retail, bringing the total discount to $13.5 million. Fortitude Mining is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, or DCG, and was established in January 2025. The company currently mines about 157,000 ZEC on an annual basis. On July 28, it launched a new 12 MW facility in Nebraska that it expects will reduce mining cash costs by 43%. Fortitude is also preparing to go public through a merger with Nasdaq-listed HeartSciences. After the deal closes, the combined company is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker TUDE.

Bitmain has announced that the World Digital Mining Summit, or WDMS Global 2026, will be held in Hong Kong, China, on Aug. 27 and 28, 2026. The event will run under the theme “Ride the Cycle. Hydro Prevails.” and is set to bring together industry leaders from around the world to discuss frontier trends and technological innovation in digital assets. According to the event description, the summit will place a spotlight on innovative applications of hydro cooling technology in computing power deployment, giving attendees a closer look at solutions at the front edge of the sector. Bitmain said Hong Kong, as a meeting point for international finance and technology, provides the setting for the event. Additional details are available on the conference website.

Poolin Technology Pte. Ltd., once the operator of one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 22 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. The case also includes two U.S. affiliates, Lonestar Dream Inc. and Lonestar Taproot LLC. Court records show the group entered bankruptcy with more than $100 million in prepetition obligations and less than $10 million in assets. Poolin, founded in Beijing in 2017 by former Bitmain executives Zhibiao “Kevin” Pan, Fa Zhu, and Tianzhao Li, had once controlled nearly a fifth of Bitcoin’s global hashrate before expanding into lending and yield products through Poolin Wallet. The company’s troubles began in September 2022, when it froze withdrawals for Poolin Wallet and Pool Account users, citing liquidity issues during the broader crypto market crash. Instead of repaying customers, Poolin issued IOU tokens representing claims on real BTC, and those debts remain unpaid. In the bankruptcy case, roughly 11,700 wallet holders are owed $163.7 million. Poolin’s Texas mining and hosting business shut down on July 10 and is not expected to restart. The company is now seeking to sell two West Texas sites, with Thor CALAP LLC offering a $52 million stalking-horse bid for the physical mining infrastructure.

Bitdeer, led by Jihan Wu, reported 71 EH/s in total hash rate under management, overtaking MARA’s 61.7 EH/s energized hash rate. The achievement is driven by its self-developed SEALMINER chips and AI expansion, though metric differences spark debate.

A 51% attack happens when miners or validators control more than half of a network’s power, allowing transaction censorship and double-spending. The guide reviews how it works, major cases, and why attacking Bitcoin is so expensive.