Fortitude Mining Holdings, the Zcash-focused mining company owned by Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group (DCG), announced a definitive all-stock merger agreement with HeartSciences Inc. (Nasdaq: HSCS) on June 22, 2026. The deal would take Fortitude public on Nasdaq under the proposed ticker "TUDE," making it what the company claims would be the first publicly traded venture mining platform focused specifically on Zcash and early-stage proof-of-work assets.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

HeartSciences, a small-cap AI medical technology company with minimal market presence, is serving primarily as a listing vehicle in this deal. DCG, which currently owns Fortitude outright, is expected to hold approximately 95% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis at close. That figure makes clear that existing HeartSciences shareholders face substantial dilution. This transaction follows the established reverse merger playbook, a route private companies often use to access public markets quickly by merging into an already-listed shell rather than pursuing a traditional initial public offering. The move carries particular strategic significance for DCG: its subsidiary Genesis filed for bankruptcy in 2023, making the ability to unlock value through public capital markets an important priority for the group.

Fortitude CEO Andrea Childs will lead the combined company. Andrew Simpson, who currently heads HeartSciences, will continue to oversee its healthcare division as a separate business unit. In a statement published June 22, Fortitude said it "believes it will be the first publicly traded venture mining platform with a track record of identifying high-conviction, early-stage Proof-of-Work opportunities." The company frames its model as vertically integrated, meaning it controls hardware procurement, infrastructure buildout, research and development, and power contracting rather than simply running mining rigs.

It is currently building a data center in Grand Island, Nebraska, operating under an interruptible-power arrangement, which typically offers lower power costs in exchange for potential service interruptions.

Fortitude's operational numbers are significant in context. The company reported mining approximately 366 ZEC per day as of May 31, 2026, which works out to roughly 157,000 ZEC annually. It has been mining Zcash since 2019, originally as the in-house self-mining arm of Foundry Digital before DCG spun it out as a standalone company in January 2025. At the time of that spinout, Silbert said the separation would give Fortitude "greater growth opportunities to further scale the business, including raising capital, making additional investments, and attracting top-tier talent." The public listing would extend that logic further, giving institutional investors who cannot hold private company equity a way to access TUDE shares and making future capital raises structurally easier.

ZEC Price Context: Strong Year, Rough Week

Zcash has had an extraordinary twelve months. Fortitude cited a trailing twelve-month return of more than 1,000% for ZEC as of June 15, 2026, though that figure is company-sourced and has not been independently audited.

Despite that run, the token is under pressure right now. ZEC was trading near $422 to $439 as of June 23, 2026, down approximately 7% in the prior 24 hours and down roughly 16% over the past seven days. Market capitalization sits around $7.1 billion, with 24-hour trading volume near $458 million. Of the 16.7 million ZEC currently in circulation (out of a fixed maximum supply of 21 million), approximately 30% now resides in shielded pools, a multi-year high. Unlike fully private networks, Zcash supports both transparent and shielded transaction types. Shielded transactions use zk-SNARK cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof system that allows funds to move without publicly revealing the sender, receiver, or amount on-chain. The rising shielded pool share points to growing privacy-oriented usage.

The Zcash network hashrate stands at approximately 21.45 gigasolutions per second, with mining dominated by ASICs running the Equihash algorithm.

What This Means Outside the United States

For investors and users in South Asia and Africa, the picture is mixed. In India, Zcash faces de facto exchange restrictions because privacy coins conflict with Anti-Money Laundering compliance rules enforced by the Financial Intelligence Unit. Major Indian platforms like CoinDCX and WazirX do not list ZEC, though WazirX has faced significant operational and regulatory turbulence following a 2024 hack and subsequent restructuring. Elsewhere in the region, Pakistan and Bangladesh present relevant cases: both countries have large unbanked populations, active remittance corridors, and organic crypto usage, yet operate under blanket restrictions or regulatory silence that limits formal ZEC access. The TUDE equity listing would not resolve these restrictions directly, but South Asian diaspora investors in the US, UK, or Gulf states could access the stock through standard brokerage accounts, giving them indirect ZEC exposure without holding the token itself.

In Nigeria, which has the largest crypto user base in Africa and active grassroots Zcash adoption among students, merchants, and freelancers, the merger carries different implications. Fortitude's institutional mining model, built around North American grid power and large-scale ASICs, is not replicable at the individual level in markets where electricity is expensive and unreliable. Small-scale mining in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya remains economically impractical regardless of this deal. However, Nigerian investors with access to US equity platforms such as Bamboo or Trove could theoretically reach TUDE shares post-listing. In South Africa, platforms like EasyEquities offer similar equity access, extending the potential investor base further across the continent. For those already holding ZEC, the recent 16% weekly decline represents real purchasing power erosion during a period of ongoing naira volatility.

What Comes Next

The merger still requires Nasdaq approval for the ticker change, along with shareholder votes from both companies. With DCG controlling the economic outcome at 95%, Fortitude's side of that vote is largely predetermined.

The more meaningful variable is whether the listing translates into institutional capital inflows for ZEC or whether the token's current downward price momentum continues to overshadow the structural news. Crypto markets, for now, appear focused on the latter.