Binance is shutting down its Bitcoin mining pool

The easiest way to earn Bitcoin without running your own mining farm is going away. Binance said Tuesday it will close Binance Pool, Pool Savings, Cloud Mining, and its Transaction Accelerator on Nov. 10. These services let smaller miners pool computing power together, trading solo odds of winning Bitcoin for steadier, shared payouts. Binance ran the pool for six years.

Binance didn't explain the shutdown, but it fits a bigger shift already happening in Bitcoin mining. Running mining machines has gotten more expensive and less profitable for small players, while giant specialized operations dominate the business. Binance stepping back from retail mining services is one more sign the easy, do-it-yourself version of Bitcoin mining is fading.

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What happens to the miners who relied on Binance's pool? They have until Nov. 10 to move their equipment to a competing pool, or their machines stop earning anything. For everyday Bitcoin miners, that's a shrinking list of places to go. The business keeps consolidating into fewer, bigger hands.