Everything in Observer
Mining Pools
Business Description
Cruxpool is a cryptocurrency mining pool operated by ILIUM SAS, based in Metz, Grand Est, France since 2018. The pool covers six proof-of-work assets across globally distributed servers and holds DASP registration n°E2022-48 from the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers, a regulatory status cited in European fintech and legal publications as the first of its kind for a mining pool operator worldwide.
The pool supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Flux, Ravencoin (RVN), Ergo, and Kaspa (KAS). Reward structures vary by asset: Bitcoin and Flux operate under Full Pay Per Share (FPPS) at a 2% fee; Ethereum Classic, Ravencoin, and Ergo run on PPS+; Kaspa uses Pay Per Last N Shares (PPLNS). Bitcoin payouts settle daily between 10:30 and 12:00 CET against a minimum threshold of 0.005 BTC, while ETC, Flux, RVN, and Ergo settle every three hours. The platform includes a customizable real-time dashboard, automated hashrate alerts, hashrate splitting, custom VIP APIs, an embedded profit calculator, and on-site technical support for enterprise accounts.
ILIUM SAS obtained its DASP registration from the AMF and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR), covering digital asset custody and digital-asset-to-digital-asset exchange services, with law firm Osborne Clarke advising on the application. The designation placed ILIUM among a small set of European mining pool operators subject to anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations enforced by French financial regulators. France's DASP regime is transitioning to the pan-European CASP licensing framework under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), with a compliance deadline running to July 2026.
ILIUM employs approximately 23 people as of the most recent available data. The company reported that its Bitcoin pool hashrate grew more than 500% in the second half of 2023, the period during which Bitcoin mining was designated Cruxpool's primary strategic product line. The pool runs on a multi-region server infrastructure with automatic failover designed for uninterrupted connectivity across both GPU miners and ASIC farm operators.
Named enterprise clients include Meria (the French crypto-financial services firm whose CEO Owen Simonin has publicly cited the platform's payout stability), alongside enterprise mining operator BLOBB.io (co-founder Julien Femery) and Startmining. Julien Gourlet, founder and CEO of ILIUM, has stated the platform is built to serve both entry-level GPU miners and large industrial ASIC operations, a positioning reflected in the pool's dual-tier support model and custom API offering.
Cruxpool's AMF-registered status and MiCA CASP transition pathway place ILIUM among a narrow group of European mining pool operators contending with dominant U.S.- and China-based pools in the global proof-of-work pooling market.
