Fortitude Zcash Miner To Go Public Through HeartSciences Merger

Fortitude Mining Holdings has signed a definitive all-stock merger agreement with HeartSciences, setting up a public-market listing for one of the largest Zcash-focused mining platforms.

The combined company is expected to operate under the Fortitude brand and trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker TUDE, subject to Nasdaq approval. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending HeartSciences shareholder approval and other closing conditions.

Fortitude is currently wholly owned by Digital Currency Group. DCG is expected to own about 95% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis after closing, keeping the Zcash mining business under strong DCG control while giving public investors access through the merged Nasdaq-listed entity.

The deal turns HeartSciences, an AI-powered medical technology company currently trading under HSCS, into the listing vehicle for a crypto mining and privacy-asset treasury strategy. Fortitude CEO Andrea Childs is expected to lead the combined company, while HeartSciences CEO Andrew Simpson is expected to continue running the healthcare business unit after the merger closes.

Zcash Production Becomes The Core Public-Market Hook

Fortitude began mining ZEC in 2019 and has scaled to 157,000 ZEC in annualized production, equal to roughly 366 ZEC per day as of May 31, 2026. The company’s platform combines hardware procurement, mining infrastructure, power contracts, operations and research around proof-of-work assets, with Zcash as its anchor position.

The company also plans to keep building a long-term strategic Zcash position. That makes the merger part mining story, part treasury story. Fortitude can generate ZEC through production, hold part of that output on the balance sheet, and use public-market capital access to expand infrastructure if the merged company completes the transaction.

That strategy gives Zcash a corporate-treasury angle at a time when privacy assets are back in market focus. ZEC recently traded near $418, after a volatile run that brought privacy coins back into the center of crypto rotation. The sector had already gained renewed attention as Zcash, Dash and Railgun rallied during a privacy-token rotation.

Public ZEC Exposure Arrives After Privacy-Supply Scrutiny

Fortitude’s listing plan lands during a sensitive stretch for Zcash. The network has been drawing new institutional and treasury interest, but recent shielded-pool disclosures have also sharpened scrutiny around privacy, supply verification and legacy cryptographic risk.

Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox recently said holders “dodged a bullet” after old Sprout pool bugs surfaced, including a historical issue that could have affected hidden supply integrity in the legacy shielded pool. A separate large Zcash withdrawal followed the Orchard bug patch, showing how quickly technical confidence and holder behavior can feed into the ZEC market.

That context makes Fortitude’s public listing more than a mining-capacity announcement. It creates a listed company whose economics are directly tied to ZEC production, ZEC price volatility, power costs and confidence in Zcash’s privacy stack. If the merger closes, public investors would be buying exposure to a miner that benefits from ZEC upside but also carries the operational and market risks of a privacy-focused proof-of-work asset.