Solo Bitcoin Miner Scores Big

A solo Bitcoin miner struck gold early Friday by mining a block without a pool of supporting miners, earning $266,000 in the process.

On that day, an unknown miner successfully processed Bitcoin block 888,737. This block included 2,327 transactions, and the miner received a payout of 3.125 BTC, along with 0.032 BTC in fees.

At today’s Bitcoin price of $84,257 per coin, this translates to a more than $266,000 payday.

> Another Solo Block for FutureBit Apollo! pic.twitter.com/F5bP1ObEH9
> — CaseRocker (@CaseRocker) March 21, 2025

Bitcoin miners are essential for processing blocks on the cryptocurrency’s network, which are filled with transaction data and form part of the Bitcoin blockchain. Miners earn a fixed reward of 3.125 BTC and transaction fees from users during the block window.

As the Bitcoin network has expanded, mining has become increasingly energy-intensive, often requiring industrial-sized setups filled with machines. However, there are instances where a solo miner can achieve success using a home hobby machine.

In this case, blockchain data indicates that the miner employed a DIY FutureBit Apollo machine.
But experts explained to Decrypt that “solo mining” can be misleading; it generally refers to any miner not part of a mining pool, where resources are shared for a better chance at processing transactions.

Pseudonymous miner Econoalchemist mentioned, “The term ‘solo miner’ is broad. It could mean one individual in an apartment or a warehouse with high-powered miners.”

Thus, a “solo miner” could potentially have multiple hobby machines operating simultaneously to secure transactions, although setting this up may not be easy or cheap. Nonetheless, with several solo miners achieving block wins recently, Friday’s news may encourage more Bitcoin enthusiasts to attempt home mining.

Edited by Andrew Hayward