Solo Miner with 70 TH/s Hashrate Secures Full Bitcoin Block Reward on April 9, 2026

On Thursday, April 9, 2026, the Bitcoin network witnessed an exceptionally rare event when an independent miner, operating with a processing power of just 70 terahashes per second (TH/s), successfully validated block #944,306 and claimed the entire reward. This level of computational power is equivalent to a single legacy ASIC miner, such as the 2019 Bitmain Antminer S17+ model. The success of this individual, who was operating through CKPool, underscores the persistent lottery-like nature of the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, even in an era of intense industrial consolidation.

The total reward for the block amounted to 3.128 BTC, which was valued at approximately $222,074 at the time of the find. This total included a block subsidy of 3.125 BTC (worth roughly $221,800) and transaction fees of 0.003 BTC (about $212). Block #944,306 contained 6,755 processed transactions. CKPool developer Con Kolivas confirmed the achievement, pointing out that the probability of a miner with 70 TH/s succeeding is roughly 1 in 100,000 per day, or once every 300 years under continuous operation.

The lucky miner's contribution to the total Bitcoin computational power that day was negligible, accounting for roughly 0.0000069% of the total hashrate, which hovered around 1.02 zettahashes per second (ZH/s) on April 9, 2026. In contrast, major public mining companies like Bitdeer and MARA Holdings manage capacities measured in tens of exahashes per second, which is several orders of magnitude greater. CKPool, administered by Con Kolivas, enables users to participate in "solo mining," where the winner keeps the entire reward minus a small pool fee, unlike standard pools where rewards are distributed proportionally.

This event took place amid a period of industry turbulence, as the total Bitcoin network hashrate fell by 5.8% in the first quarter of 2026, dropping from 1066 EH/s to 1004 EH/s. This decline, documented by the Hashrate Index, was caused by the decommissioning of older hardware due to plummeting mining profitability, with the hashprice hitting a historic low of roughly $27.89 per petahash per day. This contraction—the first for a first quarter in six years—highlights that even as total network power fluctuates, the fundamental unpredictability of reward distribution persists.

This is not the only recent instance of a small-scale participant striking gold via CKPool. Just days earlier, on April 3, 2026, another user with 230 TH/s secured a reward of 3.139 BTC, then worth approximately $210,000. Over the past year, data shared by an analyst named Bennett indicates that solo miners have found a total of only 22 blocks, earning 69.24 BTC, which illustrates the extreme rarity of such individual successes. Geographically, as of the second quarter of 2026, global hash power remained highly concentrated: the U.S. led with 37.4%, Russia held 16.9%, and China followed with 12.0%, together accounting for about 65% of the network. This broader context makes the 70 TH/s miner’s victory appear even more anomalous.