Beating the odds in crypto mining isn’t something that happens every day, but this time, a solo miner gave themselves a little edge.
Today, June 5, a Bitcoin miner using CKpool managed to claim block 899,826 and walk away with 3.15 BTC, worth around $330,386 at the time.
The block reward included $327,625 in newly minted Bitcoin and about $2,761 in transaction fees, according to data from Bitcoin explorer Mempool.
Rented hash power boosts chances in a 1-in-3,000 shot
The solo miner operated under the address ‘bc1qa8r4up9nchkvdnhcf9feexv2jfantrk48ef374’ and significantly increased their hashrate right before the block was solved.
While their average weekly hash rate was just 6.11 petahashes per second (PH/s), they briefly ramped up to 261 PH/s, suggesting they likely rented additional compute power to improve their odds of success.
According to Con Kolivas, developer of the CKpool mining pool, the sudden spike in hash rate and presence of only one active worker points to a rental setup.
“This hash rate was almost certainly a rental,” Kolivas noted on X, though he also acknowledged that the account had been mining at lower rates for some time.
At the time the block was mined, the Bitcoin network’s total hash rate stood at roughly 796 exahashes per second (EH/s). Based on those numbers, the solo miner’s chance of winning the block reward sat around 0.03%—or roughly 1 in 3,050 odds.
Rare but not unprecedented wins for solo miners
This marks the 300th block solved using CKpool, which is tailored to give solo miners a shot at earning entire block rewards without joining traditional mining pools. While still rare, this isn’t the first instance of a solo miner landing a full Bitcoin block.
Back in April 2024, a miner defied 1 in 5,000 odds to earn a $218,544 block reward. Another notable case saw a solo miner overcome 1 in 1.3 million odds to secure $260,000 in rewards.
These stories continue to highlight the unpredictable and sometimes rewarding nature of solo mining, especially when combined with rented power and a well-timed bet on Bitcoin’s next block.
