33-day solo drought Bitcoin miners ended last week when one tiny operator cracked a block that statistically shouldn’t have cracked for decades.
One miner, one block, one very long shot
The winning miner earned 3,139 BTC – worth approximately $210,000 – after successfully verifying block 943,411 April 3. The payout included a standard block grant of 3.125 BTC and approximately 0.014 BTC in transaction fees.
Data from mempool.space confirmed the transaction. The miner operated through CKPool, a platform built for independent operators who prefer to go it alone and keep most of the money they make.
What made the victory extraordinary was the equipment behind it. The excavator setup operated at a speed of just 230 terahashes per second. At this time, the entire Bitcoin network hashrate it was sitting at around 1 zettahash per second. This means that the miner’s share of global computing power is approximately 0.00002% – a slice so lean that you can barely see it.
A lone Bitcoin miner with a tiny setup just hit the jackpot, earning 3,139 BTC block rewards worth $210,000.
His setup was so tiny that statistically he should have won once every 76 years. pic.twitter.com/z7s1LxIhZT
— Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) April 6, 2026
CKPool developer Con Kolivas estimates the daily odds of success at approximately 1 in 28,000. Bitcoin Archive analyst Archie put it another way: a miner at this power level should statistically win once every 76 years. This particular miner didn’t wait that long.
Congratulations to miner bc1qtt7cr9cxykyp9g4hq47zf5lq9t97cxvq72lun3 with ~230TH for solving block 312 solo on https://t.co/UWgBvLk5AE!
A miner of this size has a chance of 1 in ~28,000. per day to solve a block.https://t.co/dx3lUuDRbl pic.twitter.com/uiDOzZdHts
— Dr -ck (@ckpooldev) April 2, 2026
A model of unlikely victories
April’s victory was the 312th solo block ever achieved CKPool, based on data from Bennet’s solo mining tracker. A 33-day break since his previous solo success, recorded on February 28, was interrupted.
But the result is not an isolated incident. Reports point to a number of similar unrests in recent months. In December, a miner working at 270 TH/s earned over $284,000.
Previously, a setup running at just 6 TH/s – significantly slower than the latest winner – brought in around $265,000. In September, the 200 TH/s set made about $350,000.
Even the rented computing power yielded results: In tardy February, the miner reportedly spent about $75 on cloud hashrate and received a reward worth almost $200,000.
Each of these victories had high enough odds to discourage most rational participants. And yet they still happened.
The large miners are going in a different direction
While independent operators sometimes amass life-changing sums, gigantic mining companies are moving away from holding Bitcoin.
Riot Platforms sold 3,778 BTC in the first quarter of 2026, generating approximately $289 million, while holding 15,680 BTC at the end of the quarter.
MARA Holdings moved even faster, selling over 15,000 BTC from early to tardy March to raise approximately $1.1 billion, using the proceeds to service debt obligations.
Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView
