SBI Crypto to Close Bitcoin Mining Pool With 2% of Hashrate
Japan's SBI Crypto is shutting down its Bitcoin mining pool, which controls roughly 2% of the network's total hashrate.
SBI Crypto, the digital asset subsidiary of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, has announced plans to shut down its Bitcoin mining pool — a operation that currently accounts for approximately 2% of Bitcoin's global hashrate. While 2% may sound modest, it represents a meaningful slice of the decentralized network that secures the world's largest cryptocurrency, and its removal will modestly redistribute computational power across remaining pools.
Mining pools aggregate the processing power of individual miners to improve the odds of earning block rewards, then split proceeds among participants. When a pool of this scale exits, its constituent miners do not disappear — they typically migrate to competing pools, meaning the broader hashrate is reshuffled rather than eliminated. Still, consolidation dynamics in the mining industry are worth watching: fewer, larger pools carry implications for Bitcoin's much-prized decentralization.
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SBI Holdings is one of Japan's most prominent financial conglomerates, and its crypto arm had positioned the mining pool as part of a broader digital asset strategy. The decision to wind down suggests a strategic reassessment, likely shaped by persistently compressed mining margins following Bitcoin's April 2024 halving, which cut block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC and squeezed profitability across the industry.
The closure is a reminder that institutional participation in crypto infrastructure is not unconditional. Even well-capitalized players evaluate mining operations against opportunity costs, energy expenses, and regulatory headwinds — factors that have intensified globally. As the mining landscape continues to consolidate around larger, lower-cost operators — particularly in the United States — exits by legacy pool operators may become more common in the months ahead.
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