Highlights
- Fortitude has activated a 12-megawatt mining facility in Grand Island, Nebraska, boosting its total power capacity to over 60 MW.
- The company anticipates that this site will lower its cash costs for mining Zcash by reducing electricity expenses and utilizing advanced mining technology.
- This development comes as Fortitude prepares for a merger with HeartSciences, which will lead to the company's public listing.
Zcash mining firm Fortitude has successfully launched a 12-megawatt facility in Grand Island, Nebraska, marking the completion of its first greenfield data center and increasing its total power capacity to more than 60 megawatts across seven locations.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the company, owned by Digital Currency Group, announced that its inaugural greenfield facility has finished construction and electrical testing, making it ready for commercial operations. This milestone arrives ahead of Fortitude's planned public listing through a merger with HeartSciences (Nasdaq: HSCS), a medical technology company already listed on the stock market.
CEO Andrea Childs shared with Decrypt, "Our power strategy is centered on owned-and-operated facilities, which supports our vertically integrated Zcash strategy and venture mining platform. By owning our assets instead of leasing from others, we aim to achieve a level of flexibility that we believe is rare among operators."
Fortitude estimates that the new facility will bring down its direct cash costs for mining Zcash from approximately $70 per coin to about $40, contingent on the successful deployment of mining equipment and stable conditions in power, network, and market. Currently, Zcash is priced at $489 per coin, with a market capitalization of $8 billion.
The anticipated savings are attributed to the lower-cost power generated on-site and the implementation of more efficient next-generation mining hardware.
Fortitude's Nebraska mining facility for Zcash. Image: FortitudeThe facility is projected to acquire electricity at around $0.045 per kilowatt-hour. Its strategic location, nestled between two solar power plants and adjacent to a substation with surplus capacity, allows it to function as an interruptible load that can decrease electricity usage during peak demand times.
Since its inception in January 2025, Fortitude has evolved from the mining division of Digital Currency Group's Foundry to focus on mining Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies using a venture mining approach. The company plans to reinvest its mining profits into upgrading equipment and acquiring new sites as it broadens its infrastructure.
Childs commented, "We view Zcash as being in a different phase compared to Bitcoin. Bitcoin's mining economics have become saturated, while we believe Zcash is poised for growth. Our integrated structure, along with our long-standing commitment to mining Zcash, positions us well to capitalize on its future significance in the financial landscape."
This initiative comes amid heightened competition among cryptocurrency miners for affordable electricity, driven by increasing demand from AI data centers that are competing for energy and suitable locations.
As data centers face growing scrutiny regarding their energy and water consumption, officials in Grand Island noted that Fortitude's mining facility is designed to function as a flexible grid resource while minimizing its effects on the local community.
Childs stated, "The competition for power has indeed intensified, but we believe it hasn't impeded our progress. By developing and owning our own facilities, we aim to directly manage our power costs instead of relying on third-party suppliers to dictate them for us."