Solo Bitcoin Miner Earns $200,000 Reward Using a $150 Bitaxe Mining Device

A solo Bitcoin miner has stunned the crypto community after earning nearly $200,000 by successfully mining a Bitcoin block with a low cost Bitaxe device worth as little as $150. The rare success highlights the unpredictable nature of solo mining, where small-scale participants occasionally secure rewards despite facing extremely low odds.

Low-Cost Bitaxe Miner Beats the Odds

The miner successfully mined Bitcoin block 957,382, receiving a reward of 3.1382 BTC, valued at approximately $200,000. The mining setup consisted of a Bitaxe Gamma, an open-source, credit card sized ASIC miner powered by Bitmain’s BM1370 chip, the same chip used in the industrial-scale Antminer S21.

The device was connected to the Public Pool mining service for only eight hours and operated at an average hash rate of 995 GH/s, or roughly 1 terahash per second (TH/s). According to Public Pool, this is only the second time a single Bitaxe device has successfully mined a Bitcoin block through its platform.

Bitaxe Gamma delivers 1 to 1.3 TH/s of computing power while consuming just 15 to 21 watts of electricity, making it one of the most energy-efficient hobbyist mining devices available. Depending on the model, it typically costs between $60 and $150.

Although solo mining remains extremely difficult, recent data suggests more independent miners are finding success. In 2026 alone, 12 solo-mined Bitcoin blocks have already been discovered.

On June 29, a miner using Solo CKPool earned 3.16 BTC, while another miner successfully mined a block on May 31 using a small cluster of 14 Canaan Nano devices with a combined hash rate of 157 TH/s through Braiins Solo.

Over the past 12 months, solo miners have discovered 24 Bitcoin blocks, marking a 41% increase compared with the previous year. Together, those miners have earned a total of 75.44 BTC in block rewards.

Meanwhile, the broader Bitcoin mining industry continues to face financial pressure. Many large mining companies are expanding into artificial intelligence data centers and related infrastructure as mining profitability remains under strain. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty also fell 5% to 127.17 trillion on July 12, following a decline of more than 10% in mid-June before partially recovering.