Billionaire Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group launches crypto mining venture Fortitude

Catherine McGrath

The crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group, headed by billionaire <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/11/20/decentralized-ai-yuma-bittensor-bcg-barry-silbert/">Barry Silbert</a>, is pursuing an additional source of revenue by launching its own <a href="https://fortune.com/2024/11/21/james-howells-bitcoin-hard-drive-lost-millions-newport-city-council/">crypto-mining</a> venture.&nbsp;<div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">



In a move announced this week, <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/05/09/crypto-giant-dcg-post-surges-in-revenue-grayscale-profitable-despite-15-billion-in-outflows/">DCG</a> will spin off the mining division of its Foundry subsidiary, a decentralized infrastructure company, to form a new firm called Fortitude Mining. The new company will aim to diversify DCG’s assets by mining a wide range of cryptocurrencies, unlike most crypto miners, which focus solely on Bitcoin. In an interview with Fortune, Andrea Childs, CEO of Fortitude, described this concept as “venture mining.”&nbsp;



Childs, formerly the senior vice president of operations and marketing at Foundry, said that since it was founded five years ago, Fortitude has focused on mining various altcoins in addition to <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/price/bitcoin">Bitcoin</a>. “So many miners in the space are what we call Bitcoin maximalists,” she said. “We look across the entire proof-of-work ecosystem to say what’s going to give us the largest return.”&nbsp;



However, she declined to share which altcoins the company mines outside of Bitcoin.&nbsp;



As a division of Foundry, Fortitude operated as a “self-miner.” This means that the company purchases its own mining equipment—or “fleet” as Childs referred to it—but pays a third party to host the machines in a data center.&nbsp;



As its own entity, the new CEO said, the company is looking to expand its internal operations by raising funds through strategic partnerships with help from DCG and by reinvesting cash flows earned from mining. “We think it’s really important to go out and purchase sites and access to long-term power … so we won’t need to rely on third parties moving forward,” she said.&nbsp;



Since the early days of crypto, when mining a Bitcoin was as easy as downloading software onto your home computer, the process has grown into a multibillion-dollar business. While it is unclear how profitable it is to mine altcoins like <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/price/bitcoin">Ethereum</a>, Bitcoin mining is especially lucrative in 2025. 



It costs large miners between $26,000 and $28,000 to mine one Bitcoin, according to a recent CoinDesk <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/01/22/bitcoin-mining-economics-expected-to-be-stable-profitable-in-2025-canaccord-says">report</a>, suggesting that—at Bitcoin’s current price of $105,000—Fortitude stands to profit at least $77,000 per Bitcoin mined.&nbsp;



“Over the past five years, Foundry has continued to invest in the fleet … and DCG now felt it was the right time to spin out that mining portion of Foundry into its own entity,” Childs said.&nbsp;



The potential for profit comes at an opportune time for DCG and its subsidiaries, which are facing numerous costly lawsuits brought against them in recent years. Earlier this month, DCG agreed to <a href="https://decrypt.co/301595/digital-currency-group-settles-sec-charges-38-million">settle</a> a lawsuit brought by the SEC for $38 million.</div>

Fortitude will try to maximize returns by mining a range of altcoins in addition to Bitcoin.

Digital Currency Group spins off crypto-mining unit to form new firm Fortitude

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The new Fortitude venture will “look across the entire proof-of-work ecosystem to say what’s going to give us the largest return.”


Billionaire Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group launches crypto-mining venture Fortitude

Digital Currency Group spins off crypto-mining unit to form new firm Fortitude | Fortune Crypto

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