Stock Market

Story: Jaime Leverton Joins Fortitude Mining as Zcash Surges Toward Nasdaq Listing

By Pankaj K

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Zcash Output and the 9,000-Machine Bet. The numbers are pretty striking. In the first half of 2026, Fortitude mined 72,696 ZEC — roughly…

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ZEC at $1,424: Paradigm's Matt Huang Backs the Rally. Zcash itself is on a tear. The token hit $1,424, up 185% over the past month and more than 2,600%…

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The Nasdaq Path and What's Still Murky. The merger with HeartSciences is the big variable. The transaction needs regulatory sign-off, and…

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Fortitude Mining just got a new boss. Jaime Leverton, who previously ran Hut 8 through a major merger and its Nasdaq debut, takes over as CEO on September 21, replacing Andrea…

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Leverton's hire isn't random timing. Fortitude is pushing toward its own public listing, and the company wants someone who's already done this before.

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Fortitude is fully owned by Digital Currency Group and has been mining Zcash since 2019.

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The numbers are pretty striking. In the first half of 2026, Fortitude mined 72,696 ZEC — roughly 28% of the entire network's production for that period.

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And it's not done expanding. Fortitude bought 9,000 Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro machines, set to arrive in the fourth quarter. When they land, they're expected to add 7.

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Fortitude became a vertically integrated platform in 2025. The combination of that vertical structure, the geographic spread of its sites, and the incoming hardware order puts…

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Zcash itself is on a tear. The token hit $1,424, up 185% over the past month and more than 2,600% over the past year. Those are numbers that make people pay attention.

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See also: Zcash Surges 15% to $1,388 as Privacy Coins Outpace $2.7T Crypto Market

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Part of the fuel came from Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, who went public with the firm's investment in ZEC and its backing of the Zcash Open Development Lab.

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Zcash runs on zero-knowledge proofs, which let users transact privately without exposing transaction details on a public ledger.

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The broader privacy coin market has been something of an afterthought for most of the past few years, overshadowed by DeFi, NFTs, and layer-2 narratives.

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Related: Kevin OLeary Predicts Clarity Act Revival While Senate Vote Falls Short

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