Key highlights:
- Fortitude plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker TUDE
- The firm produces about 157,000 ZEC annually, making it one of the coin’s top miners
- The listing comes as Zcash looks to recover from its recent crash
Fortitude, one of the largest Zcash miners, is preparing to go public through a merger with medical-tech company HeartSciences.
According to a recent press release, the deal should close in the second half of 2026. The combined company plans to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol TUDE. The move is particularly major for the Zcash miner, which spun out of Digital Currency Group’s (DCG) mining subsidiary Foundry early last year.
Fortitude and HeartSciences (Nasdaq: $HSCS) Announce Business Combination, Aiming to Bring a Leading Vertically-Integrated Zcash Mining Platform to the Public Markets.
-Combined company expected to operate under the Fortitude brand and to trade on Nasdaq; transaction expected to…
— Fortitude Mining (@FortitudeCrypto) June 23, 2026
The planned Nasdaq listing could give the firm greater access to capital while helping it expand its mining operations and investment strategy.
Fortitude bets big on Zcash
Many firms usually focus their efforts on mining just Bitcoin. Fortitude, on the other hand, built its own business on picking out early-stage proof-of-work opportunities. Its largest holding today is Zcash. This coin gained attention from investors, mostly because of its privacy features.
The company began mining the privacy coin in 2019 and has now expanded its operations since then. As of May 31, 2026, the company was producing about 366 ZEC per day.
Fortitude CEO Andrea Childs said the company’s business model allows it to move as fast as possible when lucrative opportunities come to light. She added:
“As a public company, we anticipate having the flexibility and access to capital to accelerate our core venture mining platform and continue pursuing high-return opportunities in the Proof-of-Work ecosystem, including our long-standing position in Zcash.”
Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert also shared his confidence in Zcash. He called ZEC one of the best opportunities in the current market cycle.
Meanwhile, Fortitude also reported that its mining operations delivered a trailing twelve-month return of more than 1,000% as of June 15, 2026.
Merger comes during volatile period for ZEC
On June 4, the Zcash project annnounced that a reasearcher discovered a vulnerability that could have allowed the unlimited creation of ZEC tokens in the Orchard shielded pool. The issue was patched, but proving that it hadn’t been exploited will require a network upgrade. The news of the exploit’s discovery lead to panic in the ZEC market and a huge sell-off.
At a point, the coin fell by 40% in just one day, dropping from recent highs near $675 to below $300. While the token has since recovered part of those losses, volatility remains high.
More recently, sentiment improved after a security audit conducted using Anthropic’s AI-powered Mythos model found no critical issues with the protocol. After the audit results at the time, Zcash pumped more than 26% as investors started to pick up the slack.
Interest in the coin also increased because of the upcoming European crypto regulations. Basically, privacy coins are said to be more favored in this region. Some investors say the concerns about financial privacy could boost demand for coins like ZEC in the years ahead.
If this new merger, especially, receives the necessary approvals, Fortitude will become one of the few publicly traded companies offering investors direct exposure to its Zcash mining operations.
As of press time, the ZEC price is down by 8% amid a market-wide selloff, trading at a price of around $421.
Source:: Zcash Miner Fortitude Mining Set for Nasdaq Listing Through Merger