Hobbyist Miner Snags $265K Bitcoin Block Against 1-in-180-Million Odds Using Just One Old ASIC

A single Bitcoin miner running a mere 6 terahashes per second (TH/s)—an almost negligible fraction of the network—managed to mine a full BTC block on Friday, earning 3.146 BTC plus fees, worth nearly $265,000.

The remarkable feat was confirmed by Con Kolivas, creator of the Solo CK pool, who said the miner faced “only a one in 180 million chance” of finding a block on any given day.

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

This block marks the 308th mined via CKpool since the software’s 2014 launch, and the first in roughly three months. CKpool allows miners to solo mine while leveraging the pool’s infrastructure, meaning the winning wallet keeps the full reward minus a 2% fee.

Friday’s success stands out as one of the luckiest solo-mined blocks in recent memory. By comparison, a 2022 solo miner with 126 TH/s overcame odds of roughly 1 in 1.3 million to secure a block. The tiny scale of Friday’s miner relative to the network hash rate makes this latest outcome far more improbable.

The miner had submitted shares to CKpool as usual, but with only 6 TH/s—the output of a single older-generation ASIC—the likelihood of finding a block is typically measured in hundreds of years of continuous mining.

Solo mining has grown increasingly rare as Bitcoin’s total hash rate climbs. While this strengthens network security, it significantly reduces the chances that small-scale miners can capture a block on their own.