Zcash-focused mining firm Fortitude Mining has appointed former Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton as its new chief executive effective September 21, a move aimed at guiding the company toward a planned Nasdaq listing. Leverton confirmed the appointment on X, writing, "Thrilled to join @FortitudeCrypto as CEO," and praised the company's "owned power, owned sites, and a production track record." She succeeds Andrea Childs, who becomes chief operating officer and will focus on mining operations, fleet decisions, and infrastructure.
Leverton brings public-company experience from Hut 8, where she led the miner through its combination with US Bitcoin Corp and its transition into a US-domiciled bitcoin mining and high-performance computing business. She departed Hut 8 in 2024 and most recently led digital asset manager ReserveOne. Barry Silbert, whose Digital Currency Group owns Fortitude, described her as a leader with "an exceptional track record of building and scaling companies in mining and infrastructure."
Fortitude's route to public markets runs through an all-stock merger with HeartSciences (Nasdaq: HSCS), announced on June 23. The combined company is expected to keep the Fortitude name and trade under the ticker "TUDE," subject to Nasdaq approval, with an implied valuation of at least $400 million. DCG is expected to hold roughly 95% of the merged company on a fully diluted basis. The transaction is slated to close in the fourth quarter, pending a HeartSciences shareholder vote and standard conditions.
Fortitude was carved out of Foundry's self-mining operation by DCG in January 2025. It mined 72,696 ZEC in the first half of 2026, approximately 28% of all Zcash network production, and operates more than 60 megawatts across seven sites in South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, and New York. In July, the company agreed to buy 9,000 Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro machines, with delivery expected in the fourth quarter. For the second quarter, Fortitude reported revenue of $20.9 million, a net loss of $9.5 million including a $10.3 million writedown on mining equipment, and adjusted EBITDA of $8.5 million.
Zcash has been one of crypto's standout performers, crossing $1,440 over the past 24 hours and trading in four figures for the first time since its 2017 debut. The token is up more than 2,752% over the past year and year-to-date, with a market capitalization above $24.7 billion and open interest exceeding $2.18 billion. The rally accelerated after Grayscale filed for a Zcash ETF, and miners are benefiting: the top Zcash rig has been earning about four times more per megawatt-hour than the best Bitcoin machine.
Meanwhile, the Zcash community is debating the network's Dev Fund, which routes 20% of every block reward to grants. Developer Maxime Desalle published "Contra the Zcash Dev Fund" on September 9, arguing that diverted rewards never reach miners and that the fund can create dependency, bureaucracy, and political selection. Desalle said he canceled a Zcash Community Grants grant because holding the money "seemed wrong," and cited Tachyon, Shielded Labs, and ZODL as examples of private capital funding projects without protocol subsidies. Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disagreed, calling inflation-funded developer backing "an elegant mechanism" for funding public goods. Haseeb Qureshi argued that if the fund remains, allocation should not rely on pure token voting but should instead use a representative democracy model with elected delegates.
Qureshi also said the community has settled on an identity as "encrypted Bitcoin," rejecting extra protocol features and accepting that a dependable store of value must eventually ossify. Starknet co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson tied part of ZEC's rally to concerns that Bitcoin has become too ossified. Developers are targeting November 5 for activation of the NU7 upgrade, with testnet activation set for October 6 and a final mainnet decision due October 20. NU7 would reduce target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds and incorporate the Network Sustainability Mechanism while preserving the halving schedule. In a community vote, 98.9% supported keeping the halving schedule and 99.9% of ZEC-weighted votes backed faster blocks, according to developer Sean Bowe.
