Comparative Analysis of the Major Bitcoin Mining Pools
Bitcoin mining has evolved dramatically since its inception, with mining difficulty skyrocketing as interest grew. This escalation gave rise to mining pools: collectives where miners combine resources to lower variance, split costs, and secure more frequent payouts. Today, pools control the majority of Bitcoin’s hash rate and are integral to profitable mining. By pooling computational power, miners can tackle exponential difficulty growth and gain predictable rewards compared to solo efforts.
The purpose of this post is to compare the biggest and most frequently used mining pools over an eight-week period, from February 5 to April 2, 2025, and to examine how their fees, reward methods, and block-building strategies impact miner yields. We’ll also introduce volatility metrics (standard deviation and variance) to quantify reward stability, helping hobbyist and institutional miners choose the right pool for their risk tolerance.
Methodology
- Gathering Hashrate Data
We created a python script that pulled average weekly hashrate snapshots for every pool from the mempool.space API. That tells us how many terahashes per second (TH/s) each operation contributed. - Collecting Block Rewards
We paginated through each pool’s block history, again via mempool.space, to record every block’s ID, timestamp and block reward (3.125 BTC subsidy plus transaction fees). - Matching Rewards to Hashrate
By matching each block’s timestamp to the nearest weekly hashrate snapshot, we could turn raw BTC into a normalized “BTC per TH” figure, so we’re always comparing apples to apples, regardless of pool size. - Calculating Key Metrics
- Subsidy per TH = (total block subsidies) ÷ (average TH/s)
- Fees per TH = (total transaction fees) ÷ (average TH/s)
- Total per TH = (subsidies + fees) ÷ (average TH/s)
- Subsidy per TH = (total block subsidies) ÷ (average TH/s)
We applied each pool’s published fee schedule (0–4 %) to the subsidy and fee portions as appropriate.
Note: We left out MARA Pool from this hobbyist-focused comparison because it admits only large, U.S.-based operations after strict compliance checks.
- Measuring Volatility
For each pool we built three weekly time series: total BTC/TH, subsidy BTC/TH, and fee BTC/TH, and then calculated:- Mean (average weekly payout)
- Standard deviation (SD) (how much weekly values swing around that mean)
- Variance (the square of SD, highlighting larger swings)
- Mean (average weekly payout)
A low SD means rewards cluster tightly around the average, ideal if you need predictable income. A high SD means your weekly haul can jump up or down more dramatically.
Results
Per TH Yields (8-Week Averages)
Top‐performer: Ocean led at 0.00003596 BTC/TH (DATUM payout).
Core-pool spread: Among the “Tier-1” set (AntPool, F2Pool, BTC.com, Foundry, Binance, Luxor, Ocean), subsidy per TH ranged from ~0.000030 BTC/TH up to ~0.000033 BTC/TH: a 5–10 % gap:
(0.000033 – 0.000030) ÷ 0.000030 ≈ 10%
(0.0000316 – 0.000030) ÷ 0.000030 ≈ 5%
Full-range spread: If you include outliers like Poolin at ~0.00002157 BTC/TH, the gap to Ocean becomes ~64 %. That’s a useful extreme, but most miners choose from the core cluster, so the 5–10 % figure paints a more practical picture.
Fee contribution: Transaction fees added only a few thousandths of sats per TH, on top of the subsidy, across all pools. Here Ocean led again at 0.00000053 BTC/TH, jumping out compared to the other pools.
Volatility Metrics
Who really stood out?
- Steady-eddies (SD < 0.027)
- BRAIINS (0.023), Secpool (0.024) and SpiderPool (0.025) delivered the most consistent weekly payouts—your BTC/TH will barely budge week to week on these pools.
- BRAIINS (0.023), Secpool (0.024) and SpiderPool (0.025) delivered the most consistent weekly payouts—your BTC/TH will barely budge week to week on these pools.
- Mid-pack (SD ≈ 0.028–0.036)
- AntPool, BTC.com, F2Pool, Foundry USA, Luxor and Ocean all cluster here. They’re solid choices if you want both competitive average yield and moderate stability.
- AntPool, BTC.com, F2Pool, Foundry USA, Luxor and Ocean all cluster here. They’re solid choices if you want both competitive average yield and moderate stability.
- Volatility outliers (SD ≥ 0.037)
- Binance Pool (0.040) and ViaBTC (0.041) saw the largest swings.
- Poolin (0.037) and SBI Crypto (0.038) also registers surprisingly high SD for an FPPS pool.
- Binance Pool (0.040) and ViaBTC (0.041) saw the largest swings.
What drives these differences?
- Pool scale: Smaller hash-rate share magnifies luck. A missed or lucky block on a small pool shifts your BTC/TH more than on a mega-pool. Pools like BRAIINS, Secpool and SpiderPool have enough throughput to iron out short-term swings.
- Fee-crediting mechanics: Some pools batch or delay fee payouts, which can introduce extra lumpiness even if the subsidy (3.125 BTC) is the same every block.
- Hashrate snapshot granularity: We used weekly averages to normalize hashrate. If a pool’s hash grows or shrinks sharply within a week (e.g. rigs go offline for maintenance), that intra-week change shows up as added volatility.
Weaknesses of the Study
- Weekly Hashrate Averaging: We used weekly snapshots rather than continuous hashrate tracking. Short-term hashrate swings may slightly skew per-TH yields.
- Eight-Week Window: While mitigates extreme luck, longer periods (6–12 months) would better smooth transaction-fee seasonality and pool-luck effects.
- Qualitative Factors: Reward methods (FPPS vs. PPLNS) and pool health metrics (share rejection rates, block propagation speeds) are not captured quantitatively here.
- Fee Schedule Complexity: Some pools (e.g. Foundry USA) use tiered or custom fee structures that may change over time.
Conclusion & Recommendations
Over our eight-week backtest, most major pools delivered very similar long-run yields once normalized for hashrate and fee schedules. However, volatility metrics reveal important nuances:
- If you need rock-solid predictability, point your rigs at SlushPool, Secpool or SpiderPool—they smooth out both subsidy and fee variability.
- If you want a balance of yield and stability, the core Tier-1 pools (AntPool, BTC.com, F2Pool, Foundry, Luxor) deliver solid average numbers with modest swings.
- If you’re chasing the highest raw yield, give Ocean a shot—you’ll pick up an extra few percent per TH, with volatility still in the mid-pack.
Key recommendation:
Match your risk tolerance to a pool’s volatility profile. Hobbyist miners with smaller rigs often prefer FPPS for steadiness, while larger operations may optimize slightly higher yields with PPLNS pools.
For a live mining pool data, check out our live dashboard: 🔗 Live Mining Pool Dashboard
Resources
- https://foundryusapool.com/static/Foundry_USA_Pool_Service_Agreement.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://pool-faq.foundrydigital.com/payouts#fpps-calculations
- https://ir.mara.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1392/mara-announces-bitcoin-production-and-mining-operation-updates-for-march-2025
- Mempool.space
- blockchain.com
- https://antpoolsupport-hc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5983010227993-Miners-Settings-Fees
- https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/502257
- https://hashrateindex.com/hashrate/pools
- https://help.cloverpool.com/hc/en-us/articles/900001116943-The-fee-settlement-mode-and-payment-threshold-of-CloverPool
- https://f2pool.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058887912-Mining-pools-info-payout-schemes-and-thresholds-at-f2pool
- https://www.ocean.xyz/
- https://sbicrypto.com/
- https://www.secpool.com/
- https://support.spiderpool.com/fees
- https://academy.braiins.com/en/braiins-pool/rewards-and-payouts/
- https://www.viabtc.com/pricing
- https://whitebit.com/mining-pool/overview
- https://www.poolin.me/
