$265K Bitcoin Block Won by Hobbyist Miner Who Beat 1-in-180-Million Odds with a Single ASIC

A solo Bitcoin miner running just 6 terahashes per second (TH/s)—an almost negligible fraction of the network—pulled off a remarkable feat on Friday, mining a full BTC block and earning 3.146 BTC plus fees, worth nearly $265,000.

Con Kolivas, creator of the Solo CK pool, confirmed the achievement, noting the miner faced “only a one in 180 million chance” of finding a block on any given day.

The miner controls a minuscule 0.0000007% of Bitcoin’s total network hashpower, which recently reached a record 855.7 exahashes per second (EH/s).

This block marks the 308th mined through CKpool since 2014 and the first in roughly three months. CKpool enables miners to solo mine using the pool’s infrastructure, letting the winning wallet retain the full reward minus a 2% fee.

Friday’s success is one of the luckiest solo-mined blocks in recent memory. In 2022, a miner with 126 TH/s overcame roughly 1 in 1.3 million odds to mine a block—but Friday’s miner faced far starker odds given the tiny proportion of network hashpower.

The miner had been submitting shares as usual, but with just 6 TH/s—roughly the output of a single older-generation ASIC—finding a block would normally take hundreds of years of continuous mining.

As Bitcoin’s total hash rate climbs, solo mining has become increasingly rare. While this strengthens network security, it also sharply reduces the chances that small miners can successfully capture a block, making Friday’s win an extraordinary stroke of luck.