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Barry Silbert, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Digital Currency Group, gesturing while at a conference.
(Heidi Gutman/Getty Images)
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Crypto conglomerate DCG launches new altcoin-mining business

“We are return maximalists, not Bitcoin maximalists.”

Jack Morse

There’s more to crypto than just bitcoin.

Digital Currency Group, the industry titan with a portfolio of more than 200 crypto-focused investments, announced this morning that it had launched a new stand-alone subsidiary that would mine altcoins in addition to bitcoin.

“Fortitude Mining, with deep expertise in Bitcoin mining, is uniquely positioned to institutionalize mining in emerging ecosystems with attractive return profiles,” Fortitude explains on its site. “We are return maximalists, not Bitcoin maximalists.”

Fortitude Mining is an offshoot of DCG’s bitcoin mining and infrastructure company, Foundry. In a press release, Fortitude said it plans to grow this year by purchasing additional mining rigs and facilities.

While DCG is now in growth mode, it’s had a rocky few years. The company sold crypto media site CoinDesk in 2023, the same year the New York attorney general sued the company over allegations of a $1.1 billion fraud, later expanded to $3 billion. DCG sought to be dropped from the case and said it was built on “baseless innuendo.”

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NFT price floors surge, but trading volume still in the dumps

The price floor (the lowest possible acquisition cost) of many NFTs has pushed higher recently, but sales volume has not picked up.

In the last seven days, ethereum-based collection CryptoPunks has increased more than 19% to a floor price of nearly 31 ethereum, worth over $70,000, while Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have jumped 26% to 9.5 ethereum, or $21,692, according to analytics platform NFTPriceFloor.

Pudgy Penguins has increased 20%, Chromie Squiggle has rallied 29%, and anime-inspired Azuki has gained over 44% in the period.

Zooming out, however, the ongoing rally has not coincided with growing trading volume. Weekly sales volume since last April has been on a gradual decline, per data aggregator CryptoSlam, suggesting narrow enthusiasm underpinning the price upswing.

While these once popular NFTs have seen their price floors rise recently, they are far from the heights they reached when they starred in the 2021 crypto cycle. For example, DJ and producer Steve Aoki purchased seven Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for more than $800,000 five years ago, but those NFTs at the collection’s price floor are worth $152,000 today.

Elsewhere, NFTs representing graded “Pokémon” cards are gaining traction. Collector Crypt, a solana-based venue that enables users to trade tokenized “Pokémon” cards, has earned between $2 million and $3 million each month in 2026. Its native token, CARDS, has jumped 94% in the last seven days, data from CoinGecko shows.

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