OKX set to phase out its mining pool and related services

Quick Take

  • New user registrations for the products are being discontinued from today, with all mining pool-related services ending for existing users on Feb. 26.

OKX, one of the largest crypto exchanges by trading volume, has announced that its mining pool services will be phased out from today.

The firm will halt new user registrations on Jan. 26, with existing users able to continue to use the pool until Feb. 25. All OKX mining pool-related services will be discontinued on Feb. 26.

OKX, which rebranded from OKEx in January 2022, said it had made the decision due to “business adjustments,” but did not elaborate further.

OKX’s pool previously supported the mining of multiple proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, as well as offering staking services. However, many of the supported assets had already been terminated in recent years and now only Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum Classic pool services are displayed on its website, with a total of just 19 active miners.

Withdrawal suspension saw OKX’s hashrate drop

At one point, OKX’s Bitcoin mining pool had grown to about 5% of the blocks mined on the network.

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However, following a temporary suspension of withdrawals on the crypto exchange on Oct. 16, 2020 — as one of its private key holders was “cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations” — hashpower connected to the pool dropped dramatically from 9,000 PH/s to 20 PH/s, and it has struggled to recover since. The pool's current 528 TH/s represents less than 0.0001% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate.

The Block has reached out to OKX for comment.


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James Hunt is a reporter at The Block, based in the UK. As the writer behind The Daily newsletter, James also keeps you up to speed on the latest crypto news every weekday. Prior to joining The Block in 2022, James spent four years as a freelance writer in the industry, contributing to both publications and crypto project content. James’ coverage spans everything from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Layer 2 scaling solutions, avant-garde DeFi protocols, evolving DAO governance structures, trending NFTs and memecoins, regulatory landscapes, crypto company deals and the latest market updates. You can get in touch with James on Telegram or X via @humanjets or email him at [email protected].

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