Fortitude Raises $8.3 Million by Selling Borrowed Zcash

Fortitude Mining sold about $8.3 million in Zcash borrowed from parent company Digital Currency Group, giving the miner cash for expansion without requiring a spot-market purchase of ZEC.

In an Oct. 5 disclosure, Fortitude reported receiving 5,790.4798 ZEC through an approximately $8.4 million draw from an amended DCG financing facility the previous week. The company then sold the coins for about $8.3 million.

Loans under the facility are denominated and repayable in U.S. dollars. Their repayment value is determined when the assets are transferred. Fortitude therefore does not have to buy back the same number of ZEC to repay the loan.

Fortitude also disclosed plans to draw another $20 million in ZEC and sell the coins to fund a refundable deposit tied to a separate next-generation equipment agreement. The disclosure described the additional draw and sale as planned, not completed.

The company agreed on July 30 to buy 9,000 BITMAIN Antminer Z15 Pro machines for about $31.5 million, or $3,499 per unit. The agreement schedules 3,000 machines for shipment in October and 6,000 in November. The schedule does not confirm that the machines are operating.

Each Z15 Pro is rated at 840 KSol/s and uses about 2.78 kilowatts of power. If all 3,000 machines scheduled for October become operational, they would add about 2.52 GSol/s of mining capacity and use approximately 8.34 megawatts of miner power. All 9,000 machines would represent about 7.56 GSol/s and 25.02 megawatts, excluding site infrastructure.

Fortitude separately disclosed an indicative, nonbinding commitment of up to $100 million for next-generation equipment. The arrangement requires a later binding agreement after the equipment specifications and prices are released. Shipments are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2027.

Using a Zcash price of $1,236.60, electricity costs of $0.08 per kilowatt-hour and a 30.2-GSol/s network estimate dated Oct. 16, a continuously operating Z15 Pro would be expected to produce about 0.04005 ZEC, worth approximately $49.53, per day from the block subsidy. Its electricity cost would be about $5.34 per day, leaving roughly $44.19 before pool fees, equipment costs, facility expenses and other operating costs.

If 3,000 new machines joined the network and all existing mining work remained unchanged, an existing miner’s expected coin output would decline by about 7.7%. If all 9,000 machines joined, the decline would be about 20%. The estimates assume full uptime, no other changes in network capacity and no change in the per-block subsidy.

Zcash currently issues a total block subsidy of 1.5625 ZEC per block. Miners receive 1.25 ZEC, or 80%. Zcash Community Grants receive 8%, while 12% goes to coinholder-controlled funding. At the protocol’s target interval of 75 seconds, the network would produce about 1,152 blocks per day, although actual issuance varies with block production.

Fortitude has said it sells or otherwise monetizes all digital assets it mines. Future disclosures will cover completed financing conversions, equipment deliveries and any increase in operating mining capacity.