Bitcoin mining giants back Stratum V2 as costs rise

Seven major Bitcoin mining pools have joined the Stratum V2 working group as the industry seeks a common open standard for communication between pools and miners.

The new members include AntPool, Block Inc., F2Pool, Foundry, MARA Foundation, SpiderPool, and DMND. The group will work on wider adoption of Stratum V2, a protocol built to improve how mining pools share work with individual miners.

Stratum V2 aims to improve mining efficiency

Stratum V2 is designed to make Bitcoin mining pool communication faster and more secure. It can also give miners more control over block template selection instead of relying only on pool operators.

The timing matters because mining remains highly competitive. The Stratum V2 announcement said, “Bitcoin mining is competitive and fragmented by design.” That claim fits the current market, but the real benefit will depend on how widely pools and miners adopt the protocol.

Foundry and AntPool are among the largest Bitcoin mining pools by hashrate. Their role gives the working group more market weight than earlier protocol efforts.

Foundry controls nearly 30% of global pool hashrate, while AntPool controls about 17.7%, according to Hashrate Index data cited in recent reports. Their participation could help Stratum V2 move from technical work toward broader use.

Miners remain under pressure

Crypto.news reported that CoinShares estimated 15% to 20% of the global Bitcoin mining fleet may be unprofitable under current conditions. The pressure is strongest among miners using older machines or paying higher electricity costs.

CoinShares also said Q4 2025 was the hardest quarter for miners since the April 2024 halving. Hashprice fell near five-year lows, while the average cash cost to produce one Bitcoin among listed miners reached about $79,995.

Moreover, Bitcoin mining difficulty is also expected to rise again in May. Higher difficulty means miners need more computing power to earn the same block rewards.

That leaves miners searching for small efficiency gains. Stratum V2 may help reduce delays and improve coordination, but it will not remove the broader cost pressure from energy prices, hardware costs, and Bitcoin price swings.