DCG-owned Zcash miner Fortitude to go public via HeartSciences merger
What's the deal? Fortitude Mining Holdings and HeartSciencesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (Nasdaq: HSCS) have signed a definitive all-stock merger agreement that will take Fortitude's Zcash mining platform public. The combined company will 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.
Who's who? Fortitude is a vertically-integrated digital asset mining platform anchored in Zcash and currently wholly-owned by Digital Currency Group. HeartSciences is an AI-powered medical technology company already listed on Nasdaq.
What changes? Fortitude's management team, led by chief executive officer Andrea Childs, will run the combined company. Current HeartSciences chief executive officer Andrew Simpson is expected to continue leading the healthcare business unit after closing.
The rationale: Fortitude began mining ZEC, Zcash's native token, in 2019 and has scaled annualised production to 157,000 ZEC — roughly 366 ZEC per day — as of May 31, 2026. Its platform spans hardware procurement, power infrastructure, and capital deployment, with a "venture mining" approach targeting early-stage Proof-of-Work protocols.
Why now? Zcash, launched in 2016 from Bitcoin's codebase, has delivered a trailing twelve-month return of more than 1,000% as of June 15, 2026. Fortitude believes it will be the first publicly traded venture mining platform with a track record of identifying early-stage Proof-of-Work opportunities.
What could go wrong? The deal remains subject to Nasdaq approval, and Fortitude's business is heavily concentrated in a single, highly volatile asset. A privacy-preserving coin like Zcash also faces regulatory scrutiny as economic activity moves on-chain.
The signal: The merger reflects a broader move by crypto operators to reach public markets through reverse-merger-style combinations rather than traditional listings. For DCG, spinning Fortitude into a listed vehicle offers a route to public capital while doubling down on Zcash's privacy-focused, fixed-supply thesis.
Read more: Intelligence360
Image credit: Jemimus
