Key facts
- A solo Bitcoin miner earned approximately $200,000 by mining block 957,382.
- The miner utilized a Bitaxe device, a budget ASIC miner costing between $60 and $150.
- The Bitaxe device operates at 1-1.3 TH/s with low power consumption of 15-21 watts.
- Solo miners have found 24 blocks in the past 12 months, a 41% year-over-year increase.
- Total payouts to solo miners over the past year exceed $4.7 million.
A solo Bitcoin miner achieved a remarkable feat by striking block 957,382, earning 3.1382 BTC, which is approximately $200,000. This unlikely win was achieved using a low-power, credit-card-sized Bitaxe device, an open-source ASIC miner that costs between $60 and $150. The device, which uses the same chip as industrial Antminer S21 machines, delivers about 1 to 1.3 terahashes per second at 15 to 21 watts. The miner was running the rig for only eight hours through the Public Pool service with an average hash rate of 995 GH/s. This marks the second time a single Bitaxe has solo-mined a block on the Public Pool service. Solo Bitcoin mining has seen a surge, with 24 blocks found in the past 12 months, representing a 41% increase year over year. Other recent solo mining successes include a miner on Solo CKPool landing 3.16 BTC on June 29 and a miner using 14 Canaan Nano devices hitting a block on Braiins Solo on May 31. The broader Bitcoin mining industry is facing pressure, with margins squeezed, leading some companies to pivot to AI data centers. Bitcoin mining difficulty recently dropped 5% to 127.17 trillion on July 12.