Barry Silbert Backed Zcash Miner Moves To Expand Zcash Mining

Fortitude Mining Holdings, the Zcash miner backed by Digital Currency Group (DCG) founder Barry Silbert, has agreed to purchase 9,000 Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro mining rigs for approximately $31.5 million, in a move that would sharply increase its share of the $ZEC network's computing power.

A Major Bet on Zcash Hashrate

The deal, struck directly with Bitmain, prices each unit at roughly $3,499. Fortitude says it secured the hardware at a discount of between 13% and 27% below comparable market rates for deliveries in the same period. Deliveries are set to arrive in two tranches: 3,000 units in October 2026 and 6,000 in November.

The new fleet is expected to add 7.56 GSol/s of hashrate to Fortitude's operations, lifting its total mining capacity by 145%. If delivered as planned, the expansion could give Fortitude control of more than half of the Zcash network's total computing power. For context, Fortitude mined nearly 28% of all Zcash produced in the first half of 2026, outputting roughly 72,696 $ZEC across that period.

The Antminer Z15 Pro is an Equihash-optimized ASIC designed specifically for Zcash mining, delivering a maximum hashrate of 840 KSol/s at an energy efficiency of 3.31 J/KSol.

Nasdaq Listing on the Horizon

The hardware purchase comes as Fortitude pursues a broader push into public markets. Fortitude and HeartSciences (Nasdaq: HSCS) announced in June 2026 that they had entered into a definitive all-stock merger agreement, expected to close in the second half of 2026. After closing, the combined company is expected to trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker TUDE, with DCG holding around 95% of the combined entity.

Fortitude CEO Andrea Childs has said the Nasdaq route is intended to fund expansion of the company's mining operations and power portfolio. Silbert, for his part, has previously argued that Zcash could eventually capture 5% to 10% of Bitcoin's market cap, pointing to the network's privacy properties as a key differentiator as financial systems move on-chain.

Fortitude also recently brought a new 12-megawatt facility in Grand Island, Nebraska online, its first self-developed greenfield data center, pushing its contracted power portfolio to more than 60 MW across seven sites in the United States. The company projects the site could lower its direct cash cost of mining $ZEC from roughly $70 to about $40 per coin.

Sources:
SEC Filing: Fortitude and HeartSciences Announce Business Combination
Decrypt: Zcash Miner Fortitude Powers Up Nebraska Facility
The Block: Fortitude Brings Nebraska Facility Online