Bitcoin Mining Pools

Bitcoin mining pools evaluated on which payout scheme carries your variance and orphan risk (30%), whether the coinbase transaction pays you directly or the pool holds your balance until it releases it (26%), whether the advertised fee is the whole fee once transaction fees and MEV are counted (24%), and who authors the block template you hash on (20%).

16providers tracked

8ranked (methodology v2026.11.1)

12 November 2026Ranking snapshot

29 September 2026oldest read · due 13 Nov

Independent. Evidence-based.We rank with a published method and sourced evidence. No one can pay to rank.How it works

$1,000 ·

8 providers match your requirements

Out of 8 ranked providers. 0 excluded.

What this ranks

Ranked here: Bitcoin mining pools, operators that aggregate miners' hashrate, assemble or relay block templates and pay miners out of block rewards.Not ranked here: cloud-mining contracts, hosting and managed mining, listed self-miners, hashrate marketplaces, staking pools, mining firmware, mining data and derivatives, and non-Bitcoin pools.8 of the 16 assessed are ranked; 8 were turned away by name. Who, and whyRequirements narrow the list; they never change a published ChainChoice Score. How the ranking works

OCEAN

How OCEAN was chosen

Leads this ranking on Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?

The only pool in the set

80 out of 100published score, #1 of all 8 worldwide

Evidence

High

4/4 criteria scored, with 4 dated sources quoted.

Payout scheme risk transferBlock template control

Why it leads

OCEAN is 9 points ahead of ViaBTC, mainly because it scores higher on its block template control and its fee completeness txfee MEV.
Best in this ranking on fee completeness txfee MEV and block template control
Ahead of ViaBTC on block template control (+6.2 points) and fee completeness txfee MEV (+3.0 points)

Estimated cost for you

Not priced

Based on $1,000 monthly volume

How this is calculated

Priced on the published pool fee at the monthly volume above for one year, by the same cost model the provider page uses. This is the spread the provider states, applied to your amount; where it states a range, this is its low end and your cost can be higher. We have not measured it.

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#ProviderCompare

Custodial PPS+/PPLNS SHA-256 pool

71 out of 100

Not priced

Fifth-largest Bitcoin pool by blocks mined

69 out of 100

Not priced

The 2013-vintage multi-coin pool

67 out of 100

Not priced

A US FPPS pool

65 out of 100

$300fee read 29 September 2026 · source

Braiins Pool publishes the most reproducible...

64 out of 100

$300fee read 29 September 2026 · source

The largest Bitcoin pool by realised blocks and...

63 out of 100

Not priced

A top-two Bitcoin pool

59 out of 100

Not priced

Compare providers (0)

See key differences in features, fees, security and more.

Payout scheme risk transfer

Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?

30% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Payout scheme risk transfer (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
OCEAN	9	80
ViaBTC	9	71
SpiderPool	9	69
Luxor Mining Pool	9	65
Braiins Pool	9	64
F2Pool	8	67
Foundry USA Pool	8	63
AntPool	5	59

Payout custody coinbase directness

Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?

26% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Payout custody coinbase directness (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
OCEAN	4	80
ViaBTC	4	71
Foundry USA Pool	4	63
SpiderPool	3	69
F2Pool	3	67
AntPool	3	59
Luxor Mining Pool	2	65
Braiins Pool	2	64

Fee completeness txfee MEV

Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained?

24% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Fee completeness txfee MEV (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
OCEAN	9	80
ViaBTC	7	71
SpiderPool	7	69
F2Pool	6	67
AntPool	5	59
Luxor Mining Pool	4	65
Braiins Pool	4	64
Foundry USA Pool	2	63

Block template control

Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?

20% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Block template control (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
OCEAN	8	80
Luxor Mining Pool	5	65
F2Pool	4	67
Braiins Pool	4	64
Foundry USA Pool	4	63
ViaBTC	3	71
SpiderPool	3	69
AntPool	3	59

All 4 published criteria

Every ranked row’s score on each criterion, in the published order. Choose a column to order by it.

	Provider					ChainChoice Score
1	OCEAN	9	4	9	8	80
2	ViaBTC	9	4	7	3	71
3	SpiderPool	9	3	7	3	69
4	F2Pool	8	3	6	4	67
5	Luxor Mining Pool	9	2	4	5	65
6	Braiins Pool	9	2	4	4	64
7	Foundry USA Pool	8	4	2	4	63
8	AntPool	5	3	5	3	59

How this ranking works

How firm the #1 is, the per-criterion arithmetic behind each score, who pays ChainChoice, and which Bitcoin mining pools were assessed and left out.

FirmThis verdict holds under every one-point re-read

See the arithmetic

Every published criterion was moved up and down by one point and the ranking re-run. The same product came first each time. The published rankings file

Why this score4 published criteria · leads every one

Published criterionWtScore, and the best hereGap out of 10Pts

Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?7.2·98.6

Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?6.2·43.3

Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained?5.8·96.9

Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?4.8·85.1

Σ methodology points24.0/32

Each bar is the score on that criterion’s own 0–10 scale, never rescaled to the pool. The dark line is the best any product here reached on that axis. Wt is the most the criterion can add to the 86-point weighted total. Pts is weight × score × 32; the sum is the methodology score, and each weighted point behind the leader costs 2.6 on the displayed score. how these are weighted

Why it ranks first

Why OCEAN leads this category right now

The only pool in the set whose non-custody claim survives the chain — 45 distinct miner addresses paid straight out of the generation transaction of block 963180 — and the only one whose own terms say that everything you have earned below 0.01048576 BTC "remains OCEAN’s"; at a single S21-class miner that threshold is about a 113-day wait at the 2026-09-29 difficulty, and the Lightning route around it, paused from 2026-08-07 to 2026-08-31, is offered again. Strongest on “Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?” (9/10): OCEAN's TIDES docs publish the share-log window (eight times block difficulty) and the proportional split, and concede the limit: miners earn only when the pool finds blocks, and a low-luck stretch pays each share fewer than eight times. Orphaned blocks go unaddressed. Weakest on “Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?” (4/10): OCEAN's coinbase pays dozens of miner addresses directly, yet its terms say balances below the 0.01048576 BTC threshold remain OCEAN's, can be forfeited on termination, and are extinguished without compensation if a supported chain is dropped. Lightning payouts run again. Published price: FEE — https://ocean.xyz/docs/terms §5 (fetched 2026-09-29, "Last Updated August 4, 2026"): "The standard fee for Services rendered is 2% of all Bitcoin network rewards and transaction fees per block found with help from OCEAN (successful “Block Reward”), less…

Best for

Payout scheme risk transfer — 9/10

Main tradeoff

That the money is real but, paid on-chain, you cannot touch it for more than a quarter. OCEAN's non-custody is genuine and verified on chain: 45 separate miner addresses paid out of block 963180's generation transaction, matching OCEAN's own leaderboard — but it only starts at 0.01048576 BTC. At difficulty 127,479,855,693,691 one S21-class 200 TH/s machine takes 108.5 days to get there and a 1 TH/s Bitaxe takes 59 years; until then OCEAN's terms are blunt that "the underlying bitcoin remains OCEAN’s, and you hold no property interest in, or claim to, any specific bitcoin", the float sits in a single pool address that has taken in 642.95 BTC, and the one feature that fixes this — Lightning payouts below the threshold — was paused at block 961,488 from 2026-08-07 to 2026-08-31; OCEAN's announcements page lists the pause as completed and the homepage again offers "Get paid on Lightning with BOLT12", but the route has already been switched off once for more than three weeks. The miner who reads "non-custodial" on the landing page and points a home rig at mine.ocean.xyz:3334 has bought a genuinely superior structure with an on-chain payment lag of more than three months and a Lightning workaround that has already been paused once, and §10(d) lets OCEAN forfeit and redistribute the accrued balance on a good-faith belief of breach with real-time notice consisting of deleting the address.

Verify before signup

FEE — https://ocean.xyz/docs/terms §5 (fetched 29 September 2026, "Last Updated August 4, 2026"): "The standard fee for Services rendered is 2% of all Bitcoin network rewards and transaction fees per block found with help from OCEAN (successful “Block Reward”), less any incentives or promotional offers in effect for User at the time a block is found (“Total Fee”)." Homepage (https://ocean.xyz/, fetched 29 September 2026): "2% fee" / "1% fee for miners who make their own blocks using DATUM"; https://ocean.xyz/docs/datum (fetched 29 September 2026): "To further incentivize decentralization, DATUM miners receive a 50% discount on the OCEAN pool fee." || PAYOUT SCHEME — https://ocean.xyz/docs/tides (fetched 29 September 2026): "TIDES is a Bitcoin mining pool payout system which reduces payout variance as low as possible without the pool operator needing to hold and buffer the Bitcoin rewards as a custodian." with "share_log_window is eight times the block’s difficulty worth of shares." and "Unlike hashrate-rental payout systems such as FPPS, TIDES can only reward miners with Bitcoin that is mined." || MINIMUM PAYOUT — homepage FAQ (https://ocean.xyz/, fetched 29 September 2026): "Currently, the threshold is 0.01048576 BTC or 1,048,576 sats." plus "If you stop mining altogether or change to a new Bitcoin address, the pool will attempt to make discretionary payouts for balances above 0.00065536 BTC, should it be practical to do so. We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time." Lightning route (https://ocean.xyz/docs/lightning, fetched 29 September 2026): "OCEAN will retry paying the owed amount via Lightning every block until the accumulated earnings reach the on-chain threshold (currently 0.01048576 BTC). At that point, earnings will payout on-chain to your Bitcoin address." The August Lightning suspension is over: https://ocean.xyz/announcements (fetched 29 September 2026) lists "Lightning payouts pause at block 961,488. Temporary pause while dual-TIDES is possible." as COMPLETED, "From 2026-08-07 00:35:00 UTC until 2026-08-31 20:00:00 UTC", and the homepage again offers "Get paid on Lightning with BOLT12".

Recommendation summary

What should decide this category

Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your balance until it releases it?

Is the advertised fee the whole fee once transaction fees and MEV are counted?

Who builds the block template you are hashing on — the pool, or you?

Quick picks

Strong options in this category

Start with the lead choice first, then use the shortlist only if you still need a challenger or stronger fit for a specific setup.

Best overall

OCEAN

Best for: Payout scheme risk transfer — 9/10

Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? · weight 30%9/10Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? · weight 26%4/10Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? · weight 24%9/10Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? · weight 20%8/10

Quick pick

ViaBTC

Custodial PPS+/PPLNS SHA-256 pool that publishes an unusually complete payout formula and an explicit orphan/luck risk statement, then undercuts both by settling the transaction-fee half of PPS+ on PPLNS, freezing already-mined block rewards under a risk-control system it has twice invoked, and selling block inclusion out-of-band through its own paid Transaction Accelerator. Strongest on “Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?” (9/10): ViaBTC publishes PPS+ and PPLNS formulas with settlement rules and says that under PPS+ the pool "assumes the risks of pool luck and orphaned blocks". PPS+ still pays its transaction-fee leg by PPLNS, and one help article still lists SOLO, discontinued in May 2026. Weakest on “Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?” (3/10): ViaBTC builds every template and documents only Stratum V1 endpoints. Its BTC Transaction Accelerator offers free and paid tiers that place a transaction in ViaBTC's next block and alert cooperating pools, so it sells priority inclusion outside the fee market. Published price: FEE — https://www.viabtc.com/en/pricing (fetched 2026-09-29), PPS+ Mode table: "Mining Earnings | Block Reward | Transaction Fees (Variable)" / "Payment Method | PPS | PPLNS" / "Fee Rate | 4% | 2%" / "Formula | Shares / Difficulty * Block Reward * (1 - Pool…

Best for: Payout scheme risk transfer — 9/10

Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? · weight 30%9/10Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? · weight 26%4/10Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? · weight 24%7/10Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? · weight 20%3/10

Quick pick

SpiderPool

Fifth-largest Bitcoin pool by blocks mined (77 of 1,001, 7.7%, in the week to 2026-09-29) running a fully custodial, single-coinbase-address FPPS/PPLNS operation on Stratum V1 only — with a genuinely reproducible payout formula, a Cayman-law terms document that never once mentions your accrued mining balance, and 'The First Decentralized Mining Pool' marketing sitting on top of a litepaper that describes the decentralisation as unbuilt. Strongest on “Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?” (9/10): SpiderPool publishes its FPPS arithmetic: PPS revenue per share over network difficulty plus a fee rate from the previous day's blocks with the top and bottom 5% removed. It states FPPS earnings are independent of pool luck and PPLNS earnings are not; orphans go unmentioned. Weakest on “Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?” (3/10): SpiderPool's coinbase pays one pool address. Its Cayman-law terms allow suspension or termination at its sole discretion, deny any obligation after termination and say nothing about accrued balances; standard payouts start at 0.005 BTC daily. Published price: FEE — fee table at https://support.spiderpool.com/fees (fetched 2026-09-29), columns "Currency", "Settlement Model", "Fee", "Payment Threshold": BTC / PPLNS / "0%（Promotion）" and "1%" in the same cell / "0.005"; BTC / FPPS / "4%" / "0.005"; FB (Merged) /…

Best for: Payout scheme risk transfer — 9/10

Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? · weight 30%9/10Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? · weight 26%3/10Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? · weight 24%7/10Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? · weight 20%3/10

Quick pick

F2Pool

The 2013-vintage multi-coin pool that documents its payout mechanics unusually well — FPPS 4% / PPLNS 2% on BTC with the FPPS averaging window actually published — while contracting every miner through a BVI shell (Fram Farm Inc., company no. 2138445) whose terms carry a sole-discretion account freeze, a post-hoc passport-KYC gate and a forfeiture clause, and while running its own paid transaction accelerator that sells block inclusion for USDT outside the fee market. Strongest on “Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?” (8/10): F2Pool names FPPS and PPLNS for BTC, prices the FPPS fee component from the past day's network fee ratio, and says PPLNS revenue is affected by pool luck. The PPS term is described only in words, and no page addresses orphaned blocks. Weakest on “Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?” (3/10): F2Pool's coinbase pays two pool addresses, not miners. Its terms allow it to freeze an account and decide "in our sole discretion" whether to thaw it, with identity documents required; standard payouts start at 0.005 BTC daily. Published price: FEE + SCHEME, from the help-centre table "Mining pools info, payout schemes and thresholds at f2pool" (https://f2pool.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058887912-Mining-pools-info-payout-schemes-and-thresholds-at-f2pool, updated 2026-08-12; the HTML front end…

Best for: Payout scheme risk transfer — 8/10

Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? · weight 30%8/10Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? · weight 26%3/10Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? · weight 24%6/10Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? · weight 20%4/10

Considered and not ranked

8 products we looked at and left out

A shortlist is only honest if it says who it turned away. Each of these was assessed against the same published criteria as the ranked table and excluded for a stated reason — not overlooked.

We assessed 16 products here and rank 8 — 50% of what we looked at. That share is of the products we assessed, not of the category: how many exist is not something we can count, so we do not claim a number for it.

Cloud-mining and hashrate-rental contracts — Genesis Mining, HashFlare, Bitdeer Cloud Hashrate, BitFuFu, StormGain cloud mining, ECOS, IQ Mining, and every 'buy X TH/s for N days' storefrontHosting, colocation and managed mining — Compass Mining, Core Scientific hosting, Applied Digital, Blockware Mining, Simple Mining, Sazmining, MawsonPublicly traded self-miners as equities — Marathon Digital (MARA), Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Hut 8, Core ScientificHashrate marketplaces and rental venues — NiceHash, and any order-book where a buyer rents hashrate by the hourProof-of-stake staking pools, node operators and liquid staking — Lido, Rocket Pool, Jito, Figment, Kiln, Chorus One, EverstakeASIC firmware, mining software and miner-management stacks — Braiins OS+, LuxOS, Vnish, ePIC, Awesome Miner, ForemanMining data, hashrate indices and derivatives — Luxor Hashrate Index, hashprice futures and forwards, mining-revenue swaps, Braiins Insights, and Bitcoin mining ETFsNon-Bitcoin proof-of-work pools — Kaspa, Ergo, Litecoin/Dogecoin merged-mining pools, and Monero's P2Pool

What this ranking does not assess

Exit failure: you cannot get out at par, on time, or with what is yours.

These can still cost you money here; the ranking does not measure them, so a high place says nothing about them. Which criterion scores each family, and why the others do not apply, is in /data/risk-coverage.json.

How this ranking is built

Ranked on four questions

Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? · 30%
Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? · 26%
Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? · 24%
Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? · 20%

Data checked Sep 2026 · Independent rankings · We show our work

Reviewed 29 September 2026Next review by 13 November 2026Published 19 August 2026Methodology v2026.11.1

How this page is reviewed

Reviewed means every product ranked on this page was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.

Accountable for this review: Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder.

How we review · Review calendar · Corrections log · How we make money

Direct answer

What is the best Bitcoin mining pool in 2026?

OCEAN ranks #1 overall for Bitcoin mining pools on ChainChoice. The only pool in the set whose non-custody claim survives the chain — 45 distinct miner addresses paid straight out of the generation transaction of block 963180 — and the only one whose own terms say that everything you have earned below 0.01048576 BTC "remains OCEAN’s"; at a single S21-class miner that threshold is about a 113-day wait at the 2026-09-29 difficulty, and the Lightning route around it, paused from 2026-08-07 to 2026-08-31, is offered again. It holds that rank under an affiliate-blind methodology scored across 4 published, weighted criteria — the code that ranks providers physically cannot read affiliate payouts (CI-enforced), so a payout can't move a rank. The verdict re-computes on every fee change, incident, or regulatory action; the full reasoning and the audit receipt are under Methodology.

How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores

Liveness failure: the operator stops, censors you or loses data.
Scored by Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? · 20% (OCEAN 8/10, ViaBTC 3/10, SpiderPool 3/10)
Custody failure: whoever holds the assets loses or withholds them.
Scored by Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? · 26% (OCEAN 4/10, ViaBTC 4/10, SpiderPool 3/10)
Insolvency failure: the firm or issuer that owes you cannot pay.
Scored by Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? · 30% (OCEAN 9/10, ViaBTC 9/10, SpiderPool 9/10)

Not assessed by this ranking: Exit failure. A high place says nothing about these; the Methodology tab says what each means.

Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? (24%).

FAQs

3 questions readers ask before choosing Bitcoin mining pools.

Frequently asked

Questions people ask before choosing mining pools

Why does every pool score badly on payout custody?

Because it is the axis where this market genuinely underperforms, and the number is not a grading curve: not one of the eight scores above 4 out of 10, and the mean is 3.12. Most pools accrue your earnings on their own ledger and pay out on a threshold and a schedule they control, which makes you an unsecured creditor of the pool between payouts. Earnings arriving directly in the coinbase transaction carry no such gap. The distinction rarely appears in pool marketing, which is why it is weighted at 26% here.

Does the biggest pool win?

No. The largest pool by hashrate ranks seventh of eight, held down by publishing no fee rate at all — it scores 2 out of 10 on fee completeness while seven of the eight publish something. Scale tells you a pool is trusted with hashrate; it does not tell you what that pool discloses about what it keeps. This page scores the disclosure.

Why does block-template control matter if the payout is fine?

Because hashrate is a vote on which transactions confirm, and in most of this set the pool casts it for you. One of eight scores above 6 on template authorship; six sit at 3 or 4. If the pool builds every template it decides what gets included, and your machines enforce that choice. Stratum V2 job declaration and OCEAN's DATUM hand that back to the miner, which is why the axis is scored rather than merely described.

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Best picks

Best Bitcoin mining pools in 2026

Decide first whether you want a predictable cheque or control of the block. Most pools have converged on FPPS or a variant, which means the POOL carries variance and orphan risk and you get a steady payout — that part of this market works, and the scores show it. What almost none of them does well is the next question: whether the coinbase transaction pays you directly, or the pool holds your balance until it decides to release it. Not one of the eight scores above 4 out of 10 there. And if you care who chooses the transactions in the block your machines are securing, that narrows the field to almost nothing.

Best overall

OCEAN

Data checked Sep 2026

Best for: Payout scheme risk transfer — 9/10

Browse this network

Keep exploring Bitcoin mining pools

The same published ranking, read for your country, side by side, or one provider at a time.

Every ranked provider, its full verdict

Best Bitcoin mining pools by country

How this category is defined

Bitcoin Mining Pools: overview, criteria and weights

Written and reviewed by Mathias Siemonsmeier Founder

Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research

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Why it leads

Estimated cost for you

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