A few years ago, it wasn't uncommon to hear reports of solo Bitcoin miners setting up operations in small towns and getting rich.
Bitcoin mining is the process of using specialized computing hardware to solve complex cryptographic puzzles to verify and add blocks containing BTC transactions to the chain.
Miners receive rewards in the form of newly minted BTC in exchange for securing the blockchain network.
Related: What is Bitcoin mining? Explained
However, after multiple halvings—which, as the name suggests, halves mining rewards—the enterprise is no longer so lucrative.
Following the April 2024 halving, the Bitcoin mining reward is 3.125 BTC per block.
The story gets more complicated once we take into account the rising Bitcoin hashrate. Calculated in hashes per second, hashrate is a metric used to measure how difficult, resource-intensive and competitive mining is.
As per BitInfoCharts , the average hashrate per day has surged to 1.07 Zettahash/s as of February.
Worse, the energy costs are rising and Bitcoin has crashed 50% lower than its record high price of $126,080.
It is amid these circumstances that a solo miner has turned $75 into $200,000.
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Solo miner wins 3.125 BTC in mining reward
On Feb. 21, a Bitcoin miner rented 1 petahash/s (PH) worth of hash power—the minimum threshold—for around $75 from the Braiins marketplace.
Note that the miner rented only the mining power from the company and didn't install any physical computing hardware.
On Feb. 24, they found a solo Bitcoin block (938092) and earned 3.125 BTC worth around $200,000 in mining reward.
This is a rare feat in 2026 when publicly listed companies run massive Bitcoin mining rewards to win maximum rewards and even they are abandoning their operations in a pivot toward the more profitable AI sector.
Related: Explained: What is sustainable Bitcoin mining?
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Feb 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
