ZEC's Largest Mining Company Moves to US Stock Market After Mining 70,000 ZEC in Six Months

Author: Heart of Computing Power

As the price of the long-established privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) surged past $1,500 each, the biggest gold digger behind it could no longer sit still.

At a time when Bitcoin mining companies are scrambling for power, the veteran giant in the crypto space, DCG, quietly pushed another mining business towards the US stock market.

In January 2025, DCG spun off its self-mining business from Foundry to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, Fortitude Mining.

This company does not compete directly with Bitcoin but instead focuses on the well-known token ZEC, which is famous for its privacy features and operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) basis.

By the first half of 2026, the ZEC mined by this company accounted for about 28% of the total network output during the same period, while also planning a reverse merger that spans medical AI and crypto mining.

This is a typical rapid capital formation scheme in the US stock market.

Using seasoned operators, ready-made shell resources, and solid mining machine accounts to exchange for entry tickets to the secondary market.

1. Changing Leadership Before the Battle

The goal is to ring the bell at Nasdaq, so the captain must understand the rules of the US stock market.

On September 17, 2026, Fortitude officially announced that Jaime Leverton would take over as CEO starting September 21.

The original CEO, Andrea Childs, stepped down to become COO, specifically responsible for mining operations, the mining fleet, and infrastructure, which are heavy assets.

The logic behind this personnel change is very clear.

The newly appointed Leverton is an experienced operator in US mining companies; she previously led the large mining company Hut 8 and played a key role in the cross-border merger with US Bitcoin Corp., well-versed in capital operations of listed companies.

Although in February 2024, Hut 8 inexplicably replaced her as CEO with Asher Genoot, the president from US Bitcoin Corp., when it comes to pushing mining companies onto Nasdaq and dealing with Wall Street institutions, she remains one of the few candidates with practical experience in the industry.

Letting the technical founder manage the mining machines while allowing the capital operation-savvy executives handle the listing, DCG's goals are very clear.

2. Reverse Merger with an ECG AI Company

To go public as quickly as possible, Fortitude did not choose the lengthy traditional IPO route but instead took a shortcut through a reverse merger.

On June 23, 2026, they announced a transaction plan, reaching a full-stock merger agreement with the Nasdaq-listed company HeartSciences.

The absurdity lies in the business span of the two companies.

HeartSciences is a medical technology company specializing in ECG AI algorithms, while Fortitude is purely a token mining company.

The design of the transaction is straightforward.

After the merger is completed, HeartSciences' original medical team will continue their medical work, but the company name will change to Fortitude Mining Group, with the Nasdaq listing code applied for being "TUDE."

On a fully diluted basis, the parent company DCG will hold about 95% of the shares of the newly merged company.

It's like a mining company eyeing a ready-made golden storefront in the Nasdaq market, using equity swaps to take over the entire store, putting up its own sign, and directly opening for business.

What business the shell has is not important; what matters is obtaining that listing code.

3. Holding Nearly 30% of Output to Bet on Monetization

Daring to head straight for the secondary market with a medical shell, Fortitude's trump card presented to investors is the already established production scale and cash flow data.

In terms of production capacity, in the first half of 2026, the company mined a total of 72,696 ZEC, directly accounting for about 28% of the total ZEC network output during the same period.

Nearly one-third of the new output in the entire network is held by this company.

In terms of operational support, they have set up seven mining sites in South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, and New York, with an overall power combination exceeding 60 megawatts.

To continue expanding their advantage, the company signed a procurement agreement for 9,000 Antminer Z15 Pro machines with Bitmain in May 2026, announcing at the end of July that the unit price is $3,499, totaling about $31.5 million, to be shipped in two batches in October and November.

Looking at the financial figures for the second quarter of 2026, the company achieved revenue of $20.9 million, with a net loss of $9.5 million, but this includes $10.3 million in mining machine impairment and another $5.6 million in depreciation.

If these non-cash losses are excluded, the adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is actually a positive $8.5 million.

The capital's willingness to flock in at this time is not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

The KuPool technical team, which developed and operated the world's largest Zcash mining pool, told us in an interview that the influx of North American capital has driven up ZEC's hash rate growth, which is not only a fact that has already occurred but also a core trend for the industry moving forward.

The KuPool team revealed to us that the initial block settings for the ZEC chain are undergoing significant changes:

The much-anticipated Nu7 upgrade proposal for Zcash will be officially implemented on November 5.

At that time, the block time for ZEC will be dramatically reduced from the original 75 seconds to 25 seconds.

The daily number of blocks produced across the network will significantly increase, the speed of transaction packaging on-chain will double, and the end-user transfer experience will be greatly enhanced.

However, the tripling of block speed also poses extremely stringent technical challenges for the underlying mining pool infrastructure.

It is understood that KuPool not only quickly adapted to support the new Zcash client but also invested a significant amount of original research in optimizing the underlying network, greatly reducing the potential hash rate delays and block losses that could occur in Zcash's unique network environment, thus ensuring stable high returns for miners during high concurrency periods.

At a time when capital is rapidly raising the hash rate threshold, this deep-rooted technology foundation of veteran mining pools is becoming a key component supporting the stable operation of the entire hash rate ecosystem.

However, cash flow is in motion, and machines are continuously roaring.

But the foundation of this business model is entirely tied to the secondary market price of the Zcash token.

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Putting heavy asset mining sites into ready-made listed company shells is not a new script in the US stock market.

From early Bitcoin miners to today's vertically specialized mining companies, capital has been searching for new story carriers.

However, under the spotlight of Nasdaq, after the story is told, all valuations ultimately return to the cyclical tug-of-war between mining machine depreciation and token prices.

When the noise of the bell ringing fades, the real money in the secondary market will always test its real foundation against cyclical fluctuations.