Solo Bitcoin Miner Turns $86 into $271,000

Most miners rely on pools to distribute rewards more evenly over time. However, Bitcoin’s protocol allows anyone to mine a block, regardless of size or setup, as long as they follow the rules and solve the cryptographic puzzle first.

Not a One-Off

This is not the first time a solo miner has beaten the odds.

• On December 12, another solo miner using the alias 1Ng9~VoQz mined block #927,474 using just 270 TH/s. They earned around $288,000.
• In November, a solo miner using only 6 TH/s managed to mine block #924,569. The odds of that happening were roughly 1 in 1.2 million.
• In October, block #920,440 was mined by yet another solo participant through Public Pool, earning them 3.141 BTC.

The CKPool developer confirmed this latest block was the 310th instance of a solo miner finding a valid block under current tracking.

Src: CoinMetrics

NiceHash Makes This Possible

NiceHash provides a marketplace where users can rent hashpower without owning mining hardware. The platform connects buyers and sellers, making solo mining accessible to anyone with a wallet and a few dollars to spend.

In this case, the miner used NiceHash to buy a small share of computational power. Against all odds, their rented hash solved the block first.

Context: Mining Profits Are Shrinking

This win comes as most Bitcoin miners face falling profits.

• In November, Bitcoin mining profitability dropped for the fourth straight month.
• JPMorgan analysts noted a 26% decline in daily gross profits for miners.
• The hash price hit a yearly low of $34 per PH/s per day on November 21.
• Even with BTC recovering above $90,000, mining revenues remain under pressure.

The global hash rate keeps climbing. At the same time, rewards are being split across more machines. This puts strain on even the biggest mining firms.

In fact, the combined market cap of 14 major U.S.-led miners tracked by JPM fell 16% in November. Only Cypher Mining showed gains, thanks to its acquisition of Fluidstack. Bitdeer dropped 40% in performance.

Why This Matters

Solo mining is high risk, low probability, and often unrewarding. Yet this event shows that even under the most competitive conditions, luck still plays a role.

It also highlights how accessible mining has become. For under $100 and without owning a single rig, someone mined an entire Bitcoin block and walked away with over a quarter million dollars.