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SBI Crypto shuts Japan Bitcoin pool as its hashrate drops 64% in a month

SBI Crypto shuts Japan Bitcoin pool as its hashrate drops 64% in a month

Weekly data suggest Foundry USA, AntPool and F2Pool were already above 60% of blocks before the July 31 cutoff, complicating any direct link between the shutdown and network concentration.

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Fact Check
Multiple independent, credible sources (CryptoSlate, Yahoo Finance/Reuters, Decrypt, CoinDesk) confirm SBI Crypto shut down its Bitcoin mining pool with a July 31, 2026 cutoff. The specific 64% hashrate drop (16.222 EH/s to 5.817 EH/s) is documented in the CryptoSlate article drawing on SBI's own pool API. The claim that Foundry USA, AntPool, and F2Pool reached ~60% of the network is supported, and the article's stated nuance—that these pools were already above 60% before the July 31 cutoff, complicating any direct causal link—matches the claim content exactly. All core factual elements are corroborated.
Summary

SBI Crypto closed its Bitcoin mining pool in Japan on July 31 after a sharp decline in activity, with its seven-day average hashrate falling from 16.222 EH/s for the period ending June 30 to 5.817 EH/s for the period ending July 30. The shutdown overlapped with a Hashrate Index snapshot showing Foundry USA, AntPool and F2Pool at a combined 60.01% of recent blocks, but weekly data indicate the concentration was already elevated before the cutoff. Mempool.space buckets put the three pools at 64.8039% for July 20 and 60.7843% in the still-incomplete July 27 bucket, while SBI Crypto’s share fell from 0.9804% to 0.6192%. SBI said share acceptance ended at 22:00 UTC on July 30, or 07:00 JST on July 31, with a full Stratum shutdown scheduled for 23:59:59 UTC. Its website was to remain available for historical data and payout status, though the final payout schedule and API and portal access end dates were not specified. Separate readings later on July 31 put Foundry at 26.67% of attributed blocks, AntPool at 17.13% and F2Pool at 16.21%, while SBI Crypto had dropped to 0.72%, or about 6.8 EH/s. Because dashboard readings shift quickly and the July 27 bucket remains incomplete, the immediate effect of the shutdown on Bitcoin mining concentration remains unclear.

Terms & Concepts
  • hashrate: Computing power used to mine Bitcoin
  • Stratum: Protocol linking miners to a pool
  • mining pool: Service that combines miners’ computing power