Privacy Coins Current Affairs

Fortitude Brings Nebraska Mining Facility Online as Zcash Push Toward Nasdaq Accelerates

2026-07-29

Fortitude, the Zcash mining operation backed by Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group, has brought a new 12-megawatt facility online in Grand Island, Nebraska. This is their first self-developed site, and it pushes their total contracted power portfolio to over 60 MW spread across seven locations in four states.

The real news here is the cost structure. The site's power costs in at around $0.045 per kilowatt-hour. Combined with newer mining rigs, Fortitude expects to slash its per-coin mining costs from roughly $70 to about $40 per ZEC. That's a 43 percent reduction—meaningful in an industry where power consumption is basically the entire business.

Location matters. The facility sits between two solar generation plants and next to a substation with spare capacity. This means Fortitude can operate as an interruptible load, voluntarily cutting consumption during peak demand periods. Smart play for grid relations and regulatory goodwill.

What's actually significant is the shift in strategy. Rather than lease power from third parties, Fortitude is controlling the infrastructure directly. CEO Andrea Childs framed it plainly: "The Grand Island Facility is a meaningful step forward in our owned-and-operated power strategy, which we believe gives us the cost discipline and operational flexibility to scale on our own terms." That's control. That matters.

The timing is deliberate. Fortitude launched in January 2025 as a spinoff from Foundry, DCG's mining division. They've been mining Zcash since 2019 and now produce around 157,000 ZEC annually—roughly 366 coins per day as of May 31st, 2026. In fiscal 2025, they generated approximately $90 million in gross revenue and $20 million in adjusted EBITDA on a debt-free balance sheet.

But the real story is the Nasdaq play. Fortitude has entered a definitive merger agreement with HeartSciences Inc., an AI medical-technology outfit. The combined company will trade on Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker TUDE, expected to close in H2 2026. Subject to Nasdaq approval, obviously—but this is a serious institutional pathway.

Digital Currency Group will own 95 percent of the combined entity, which means investors get direct exposure to Zcash mining economics and ZEC price performance. That's the actual product on offer: pure privacy-coin mining leverage.

The Nebraska facility announcement arrives amid fierce competition for cheap electricity. Data centers serving AI workloads are hoovering up available low-cost power globally. By owning rather than renting capacity, Fortitude inoculates itself from market volatility and negotiates from operational strength. It's defensive and offensive at once.

There's a larger pattern here. Institutional players are building out vertically integrated mining operations with owned or long-term contracted power. It's no longer viable to play miner as a utility-dependent contractor. Fortitude's move signals confidence in Zcash's durability and profitability, at least from the mining side.

Whether privacy coins sustain this level of institutional interest remains open. But for now, Fortitude is betting serious capital and moving toward public markets. That's not a hollow gesture.

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