Provider at a glance
- Category
- Bitcoin Mining Pools
- Entity
- Not verified
- Official website
- antpool.com
Independent rankingchecked How it works
Details
Scored 59 out of 100 under methodology 2026.10.18, from the evidence read in September 2026.
AntPool
Bitcoin mining pool with FPPS and PPLNS
Bitcoin Mining Pools
#8 Overall
Ranked #8 of 8 Bitcoin mining pools in the published ranking
59
ChainChoice Score
The ChainChoice Score, shown against 100: published scores run from 41 to 99.- High evidence confidence
Is AntPool right for you?
Look elsewhere if these come first
- Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?5/10 here; Luxor Mining Pool scores 9
- Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained?5/10 here; the category best is 9
- Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?3/10 here; Luxor Mining Pool scores 5
Not yet tested for your country. Markets it lists: Global.
to test where you can use it.
The rank above is the published one, the same for every reader. Find my best Bitcoin mining pool shows where it lands for you.
What will AntPool cost you?
Not priced on this basis
- Your monthly mining revenue
- $1k
How safe is AntPool?
- Evidence: verified4 of 4 criteria rest on quoted, sourced receipts. Read September 2026.
- LicenceMiCA (EU): no register record on file here.
Alternatives to AntPool
Compare all 4- 5Luxor Mining Pool6 points above · stronger on payout scheme risk transfer (9 against 5)65$300
- 6Braiins Pool5 points above · stronger on payout scheme risk transfer (9 against 5)64$300
- 7Foundry USA Pool4 points above · stronger on payout scheme risk transfer (8 against 5)63
For your setup
Find out if AntPool fits you
The rank above is the published one — the same for every visitor. Answer the category's questions and this section shows where AntPool lands for you, which criteria your answers weight up, and which stated needs the record does or does not meet. The published rank stays beside it.
- A few questions
- No account required
- Ranking-blind: no commercial input
- Personalised in under 60 seconds
Find my best Bitcoin mining poolNothing is inferred from clicks, popularity or commercial value.
Why this rank
Why AntPool ranks #8
Each strength is read from evidence on a 0–10 ladder and weighted as the published methodology states. The 32 objective points these produce (13.1 here) sit inside the score; availability, friction, trust record and measured data add the rest.
4 published criteria · Σ weight 100
CriterionWeightStrength · 0–10ScoreContrib.MedianBestRankEvidence
305+4.809.09#8/8Loading evidence…
263+2.503.04#4/8Loading evidence…
245+3.845.59#5/8Loading evidence…
203+1.924.08#6/8Loading evidence…
Hairline = best in this ranking · tick = its median · a missing bar is "not scored", never zero
Margin−4behind Foundry USA Pool, #7
RobustnessHoldsacross a one-point change to each of its 4 criterion scores, the re-run scores 57–61 and stays #8
Evidence4 of 4 scored4 quoted, 4 with a source link
What would move the rank
Each line is the ranking run again with one of AntPool’s criterion scores changed and every other value held: the smallest whole-point change on that criterion that moves its rank, and where the re-run puts it. Up to 4 climbs and 3 falls are listed, smallest change first. Nothing here is a forecast.
Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? 5 → 8 on its ladder · passes Foundry USA Pool+364#8 → #7
Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? 3 → 6 on its ladder · passes Foundry USA Pool+364#8 → #7
Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? 5 → 8 on its ladder · passes Foundry USA Pool+363#8 → #7
Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? 3 → 7 on its ladder · passes Foundry USA Pool+464#8 → #7
Smallest climb: “Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?” 5 → 8 passes Foundry USA Pool, #7.
Strengths
1 from the score dataWhere it leads
Tradeoffs
3 from the score dataWhere it trails
Not for readers who put first
- Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? — 5/10 against a category best of 9/10
- Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? — 5/10 against a category best of 9/10
- Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? — 3/10 against a category best of 8/10
Record watch-outs
- That the minimum payout is published as FOUR different numbers on AntPool's own surfaces — 0.0005 BTC (announcement 433), 0.005 BTC (the live API, the payout-time article and the BTC tutorial), 0.01 BTC with a 0.001 settable floor (the Wallet Address article) — and that at the 0.005 the live API actually enforces, one 200 TH/s machine waits 51 days to be paid automatically, a 10 TH/s miner waits 2.8 years, and a sub-terahash home miner would wait 55 years (at difficulty 127,479,855,693,691, read 2026-08-19 from AntPool's own networkDiff field and confirmed independently against blockchain.info). QUALIFIED ON VERIFICATION: that wait is the AUTOMATIC payout only. Announcement 433 documents a manual escape hatch — a miner may 'apply for a minimum threshold payment by submitting a request or contacting the ANTPOOL customer service', processed 'at the end of each month'. So the small miner is not literally unpayable, as the research pass asserted; they are dependent on a discretionary, support-mediated, monthly process that AntPool publishes in a 2023 announcement and nowhere on the payout settings surface. Two things compound the exposure regardless: the entire coinbase goes to one pool-controlled address, so nothing is owed to the miner onchain while they wait; and clause 5.2 lets AntPool suspend the account on suspicion alone with no liability, while unlocking the payout address demands a passport photograph and a picture of the miner holding it — an identity gate that bites AFTER the hashrate has been delivered and the balance already sits with AntPool. Second-order, and fully reproduced from the chain on verification: the pool that publishes '2%' for PPLNS retains 100% of transaction fees on that mode, which over the 100 blocks it mined between 2026-08-16 and 2026-08-19 made the real deduction 2.5836%, and 3.05% on the fee-heavier block 963,176.
Competitive position
Where AntPool leads and where it trails
Rank on every objective dimension among the rows scored on it. A criterion in the top third of its pool is listed as a lead, the bottom third as a trail; the middle is neither. Popularity, size and commercial terms are not dimensions.
Availability#1 / 814.0 of 20 · constant here
Published criteria#8 / 89.8 of 30 · best 18.0
Friction#1 / 82.7 of 10 · constant here
Trust record#1 / 83.2 of 8 · constant here
Measured data#1 / 88.3 of 18 · constant here
Where AntPool leadsNo criterion in the top third of its pool.
Where it trails
- Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?#8 / 8
- Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?#6 / 8
Closest alternatives
The 3 nearest rows by score
Nearest by published score in either direction. Each card states the criteria on which the two rows differ and the cost difference under the same scenario inputs; the compare arithmetic below shows why the higher one ranks higher.
Foundry USA Pool#7 of 8 · score 63 · 4.0 points ahead
AntPool leads on
- Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained?5 vs 2
Foundry USA Pool leads on
- Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?8 vs 5
- Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?4 vs 3
- Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?4 vs 3
Largest single reason Foundry USA Pool is ahead: published criteria (+3.9 display points).Scenario cost: Foundry USA Pool has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Braiins Pool#6 of 8 · score 64 · 5.0 points ahead
AntPool leads on
- Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?3 vs 2
- Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained?5 vs 4
Braiins Pool leads on
- Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?9 vs 5
- Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?4 vs 3
Largest single reason Braiins Pool is ahead: published criteria (+5.7 display points).Scenario cost: AntPool has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Luxor Mining Pool#5 of 8 · score 65 · 6.0 points ahead
AntPool leads on
- Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?3 vs 2
- Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained?5 vs 4
Luxor Mining Pool leads on
- Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?9 vs 5
- Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?5 vs 3
Largest single reason Luxor Mining Pool is ahead: published criteria (+6.8 display points).Scenario cost: AntPool has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Against the leader
80 vs 59 · gap 21.0Why OCEAN ranks above AntPool
The compare workspace's arithmetic applied to these two rows. Each dimension's share of the gap is its weight × the difference, on the displayed scale — it reproduces the displayed gap of 21.0 to within rounding.
DimensionThisOCEANGap share
Availability · 23% weight · constant here14.014.0same
Published criteria · 35% weight9.818.0−21.3, worse
Friction · 12% weight · constant here2.72.7same
Trust record · 9% weight · constant here3.23.2same
Measured data · 21% weight · constant here8.38.3same
Published criterionThisOCEANPoints
Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you? · w3059−3.84, worse
Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it? · w2634−0.83, worse
Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained? · w2459−3.07, worse
Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it? · w2038−3.20, worse
Net5980−21.0
Your scenario
AntPool is not priced for this scenario
The pool fee on your mining revenue for a year. Excludes payout fees, any transaction-fee or MEV income the pool keeps, and your own hardware and power. Change an input and every figure recomputes from the published rate; the published rank does not move.
your cost/yr · default scenario — set your own
Your monthly mining revenue · your input$1k
Rate read from the provider’s published pricing ↗ on 29 September 2026.
your cost/yrCost is stated as your cost/yr in USD; it is never a yield, never annualised, and it does not enter the score.
Not priced on this basis
Under the default inputs · USDCategory median and cheapestNot statedOnly 2 of 8 rows publish a comparable price; a median and a cheapest row need at least 3.
6 of 8 rows in this ranking have no verified rate for this scenario and are absent from the median, not counted as free.
Evidence
Evidence read 29 September 2026
One row per published criterion: the page each strength was read from, its source type by domain, the reading date and whether the file and the published table agree. Open a row for the quote and the receipt.
4 of 4 cells scored
Score evidenceVerified4 of 4 criteria reconstruct from receipts
4 of 4 criteria reconstruct from a quoted, sourced receipt equal to the published strength.Public receiptsReading…4 quoted with a source URL
The receipt file has not been read yet.Evidence confidenceHighcoverage and corroboration, never freshness
4/4 criteria scored, with 4 dated sources quoted.RobustnessHoldsrank #8 across every one-point re-run
Whether the position holds when one criterion score is changed by one point and the ranking is run again. It is always a re-run of the ranking, never an estimate.The newest evidence read on the platform is 3 November 2026; this category's reading is older. The scores stand as read on 29 September 2026.
Reading the evidence ledger…
CriterionSourceTypeReadFreshnessStatusReceipt
Which payout scheme — and therefore who eats a bad-luck or orphaned-block run, the pool or you?strength 5 · weight 30Report an error—29 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Does the coinbase transaction pay you, or does the pool hold your coin until it decides to release it?strength 3 · weight 26Report an error—29 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Is the headline fee the whole fee — or are transaction fees, accelerator revenue and MEV quietly retained?strength 5 · weight 24Report an error—29 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Who builds the block you are hashing on — and what do they leave out of it?strength 3 · weight 20Report an error—29 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
- Liveness failure (AntPool 3/10): 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%
- Custody failure (AntPool 3/10): 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%
- Insolvency failure (AntPool 5/10): 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%
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%).
Facts
facts, not scoresWhat the record publishes
- Pricing
- FEE (per mode) — AntPool's public Coin Info JSON, https://
www .antpool .com /auth /v3 /index /coinDetail ?coinType =BTC (the data behind https:// www .antpool .com /coinInfo ?coinType =BTC), fetched 2026-09-29: "payMethods":[{"payMethod":"PPLNS","percent":0.98,"percentStr":"2%"},{"payMethod":"FPPS","percent":0.96,"percentStr":"4%"}], "minimumPayment":"0.0050", payTime "Everyday 08:00-16:00(UTC+8)". The base those rates are levied on (subsidy only, or subsidy plus transaction fees) is stated on no AntPool page read. || WHAT THE RATE DOES NOT COVER — help article "Miners Settings & Fees" (read through the Zendesk content API, https:// support .antpool .com /api /v2 /help _center /en-us /articles /5983010227993 .json, updated 6 September 2026, fetched 29 September 2026): "Transaction fees not paid out to miners are for maintenance and bonus for our engineers." The same article still reads "ANTPOOL supports four payment methods: PPS，PPLNS ，FPPS (with effect from July 13, 2020)" and "fixed block reward (current 6.25 BTC)", one halving stale against AntPool's own announcement 470: "The block reward will decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC." || MINIMUM PAYOUT — three figures on AntPool's own surfaces: the Coin Info JSON "minimumPayment":"0.0050"; help article 5985391549977 "The default minimum payout value for Bitcoin is 0.005 BTC."; help article 5983312720025 "Default minimum payout amount for BTC is 0.01BTC. You can configure your minimum payout amount from minimum 0.001BTC." Announcement 433 (2023) adds a manual route: "Miners can apply for a minimum threshold payment by submitting a request or contacting the ANTPOOL customer service. ANTPOOL will process the minimum payment requested by the miners at the end of each month." || REVENUE OUTSIDE THE MINING FEE: https:// www .antpool .com /api /v3 /coinbaseMsg /info returned "currentPrice":"1000","unit":"U" on 29 September 2026 (a coinbase message priced in USDT); the paid transaction accelerator states, in AntPool's served web bundle, "As transaction acceleration is irreversible, no refunds are provided. Please be aware." All quotes in this note were re-read on 29 September 2026.AntPool — official page at www.antpool.com ↗ · 29 September 2026 - Prices published in
- USDAntPool — official page at www.antpool.com ↗ · 29 September 2026
- Licences held
- Not published
- Compliance level
- partial
- Regulatory note
- MANDATORY ONCHAIN CHECK PERFORMED, tag decoded by me from raw hex not taken from an explorer label. Block 963,176 (2026-08-19T14:25:04Z): scriptSig 0368b20e194d696e656420627920416e74506f6f6c… where 4d696e656420627920416e74506f6f6c = ASCII "Mined by AntPool".
- Supported chains
- bitcoin
- Markets served
- global
- Primary markets
- Not published
- Restricted markets
- Not published
- Operating limits
- Not published
- Availability note
- Not published
No confirmed legal entity is on file for this record. Nothing is inferred from the brand name.
If something goes wrong with AntPool: where to complain, and where to report a scam
Loading the routes for your country.
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means this product in this category 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
History
What the record carries
Changes to published ranks are recorded in a ledger; every step and its cause is listed on the rank-history page. The entries below begin with the current verified snapshot, then the methodology versions whose changes applied to this category, newest first.
9 methodology entries
- 29 September 2026Current verified snapshot · methodology 2026.10.18Score 59, #8 of 8. 4 of 4 criteria scored. History starts here; earlier values are not interpolated.
- 10 October 2026
2026.10.8When nothing serves your country, the list shown for reference is the published ranking · platform-wide- fixed The reference list shown when nothing serves your country is the published order with the published scores, and a build check now fails any such list out of that order or with a score the ranking does not publish.
- fixed The explorer prints an overall rank only for a row the published ranking holds; a country entrant such as Coinbase Commerce for US merchants shows no overall rank.
- changed Published orders do not move. Country results change only where nothing serves the country: in India bill pay keeps Bitcoin Well first and now shows Strike second, as published; 35 such runs across all categories and countries now match the published list exactly.
- 10 October 2026
2026.10.6A criterion you require re-scores the rows that meet it · platform-wide- changed The explorer sends each criterion you require, at any band, as fit_required with your other answers; region, licence, chain and fact filters stay filters. On /best, a required criterion joins For you as a marked preference does, which needs your country; Overall stays the published ranking, filtered.
- added Every published criterion has a golden case as the explorer sends it (require:<criterion>), so the order a requirement gives is replayed and gated as the published order is, and a change to it needs an entry here.
- 16 September 2026
2026.09.15Dimension scores carry tenths, and eleven more categories are re-read from primary sources · platform-wide- changed Dimension scores resolve to tenths of a point (O-04b), and weightedTotal is rounded to six decimal places before the order is read. 518 published scores move across 107 categories that were not re-read; none of them moves by more than 4 points, and most move by 1.
- fixed 66 published scores change in the eleven re-read categories, against a verbatim source each. The largest moves are Reflexer RAI (−16), Beefy and Unrekt (−11), Aztec (−10) and Golem (+9) — all of them rows whose sources had moved since their last read.
- changed Published order moves in 38 of 119 categories and three #1s change: smart_contract_audits (Zellic → Certora) and travel_rule_compliance (Sumsub Travel Rule → CodeVASP) on the finer resolution, kyc_compliance (Veriff → Sumsub) on the re-read.
- added availabilitySource (O-04g): for a reader who states a country, a row whose availability in that country rests on a region tag its record gives no source for sorts below every sourced row. It is inert in every order published here, which states no country.
Methodology 2026.10.18, the same published run every visitor sees · receipt mining_pools:antpool:2026.10.18:a243c616467d
Are you AntPool? Reply to this verdict, or send evidence, ask for a correction or claim the listing. Every message gets a public ticket number; none of it changes a rank unless a public page or a signed statement supports it.