Solo bitcoin miner makes $200,000 using $150 equipment
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A solo Bitcoin miner using a low-power, credit-card-sized Bitaxe device recently mined block number 957,382, earning 3.1382 BTC, worth approximately $200,000. The miner ran their setup for just eight hours through the Public Pool platform, achieving an average hash rate of about 995 gigahashes per second (roughly 1 terahash per second). This outcome was highly unlikely, with odds estimated at one in 18,000 years, making the success akin to winning a mining lottery.
The Bitaxe miner is an open-source ASIC device powered by the same Bitmain BM1370 chip found in large industrial Antminer S21 rigs. Despite its small size and low power consumption of 15 to 21 watts, the Bitaxe Gamma version delivers 1 to 1.3 terahashes per second and costs between $60 and $150. This incident marks the second time a single Bitaxe unit has successfully mined a Bitcoin block solo on Public Pool, demonstrating the surprising potential of low-cost mining equipment in certain conditions.
Solo Bitcoin mining has been gaining traction, with miners uncovering 24 blocks over the past year—a 41% increase from the previous period—totaling 75.44 BTC in rewards. In 2026 alone, solo miners have already found 12 blocks, including notable recent high-reward discoveries on solo mining pools like Solo CKPool and Braiins Solo. However, despite these successes for small-scale miners, larger Bitcoin mining operations face increasing pressure as profitability tightens, prompting some major players to pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI) data center ventures.
The Bitcoin mining difficulty recently dropped by 5% to 127.17 trillion, following a more than 10% decrease in mid-June, slightly easing the computational requirements for mining new blocks. This decline in difficulty could continue to make mining more accessible to smaller operators, potentially further encouraging solo mining activities. The unexpected success with inexpensive devices like Bitaxe highlights the unpredictable nature of mining rewards and suggests opportunities for hobbyist miners, even as the industry evolves amid market and technological challenges.