SBI Crypto, the mining subsidiary of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, has announced the closure of its Bitcoin mining pool — an infrastructure that represented approximately 2% of the network’s total hashrate. After five years of operation, the pool will cease operations in the coming weeks, a decision the firm attributes to a deteriorating economic environment for mining activities.
SBI Crypto’s pool ranked among the ten largest mining pools globally by hashrate share, with an estimated computing power between 8 and 12 exahashes per second (EH/s) at the time of the announcement. Bitcoin is currently trading at $62,066, with a total network hashrate reaching approximately 600 EH/s and a total crypto market capitalization of $2.26 trillion.
An Increasingly Difficult Environment for Miners
The closure of SBI Crypto’s pool comes amid multiple pressures on the mining sector: the April 2024 halving reduced miner rewards by 50% (from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block), while energy costs remain high in several key regions (Southeast Asia, Europe). Additionally, mining difficulty has reached record levels multiple times in 2026, making the activity unprofitable for less efficient operators.
SBI Crypto’s pool was one of the few Japanese pools in the global rankings. Its closure reduces Asian representation in the mining landscape — historically dominated by Chinese pools (2Miners, F2Pool, Poolin) — to just a few players. This consolidation could accelerate the concentration of hashrate among the largest North American (Foundry USA, Marathon Digital) and Chinese pools.
Implications for the Bitcoin Network
Taking 2% of hashrate offline has no immediate impact on network operations: mining difficulty automatically adjusts every 2,016 blocks (approximately two weeks) to maintain an average block time of 10 minutes, regardless of total hashrate. However, a coordinated withdrawal of multiple pools could cause a temporary slowdown in block production until the next adjustment period.
Market reaction to this announcement has been muted, with Bitcoin continuing its upward trend following accommodative comments from Fed Chairman Warsh on inflation and weak U.S. employment figures (+57,000 jobs in June).
SBI Holdings has not specified whether SBI Crypto’s teams and resources will be reallocated to other digital asset activities, but the firm retains its holdings in other crypto sectors, notably through its collaboration with Circle on USDC stablecoin distribution in Japan.
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