In a rare event, a solo Bitcoin miner successfully mined one of Bitcoin’s latest blocks, earning a reward of approximately $180,000. Despite the dominance of large, well-funded mining firms, individual miners still occasionally strike it big. The unknown miner secured 3.169 BTC for mining block 860749, which includes Bitcoin’s block subsidy and transaction fees.
The miner was part of Solo CK, a unique mining pool where participants do not share rewards—meaning the entire payout went to this lone miner. This achievement is especially notable given Bitcoin’s hashrate, which is at an all-time high, making the competition for mining blocks tougher than ever.
Bitcoin mining is akin to a lottery, where higher computational power increases the chances of mining the next block. Large corporate miners often pool their resources to increase the likelihood of rewards, which are then split based on contribution. FoundryUSA and Antpool, for instance, collectively make up about 60% of Bitcoin’s hashrate. In contrast, Solo CK, which provides anonymity and covers the cost of running a node, remains a small player.
However, solo miners have been on a streak lately, with the previous solo block mined just two weeks ago at Block 858978, netting the winner over $200,000. A similar event occurred in July with another solo miner hitting Block 853742.
Matthew Sigel, the Digital Assets Research Lead at VanEck, suggested that lower electricity costs as summer draws to a close may be benefiting miners. With mining costs down, miners may feel less pressure to sell their Bitcoin, potentially reducing selling pressure in the market.