Bitcoin’s network witnessed another stunning underdog victory when a tiny ASIC miner with a mere 5 TH/s of hashrate solved block 913272 on September 7, 2025. The miner, a Nerdminer QAxe++ costing approximately $500, was operating through Ocean Mining’s solo mining setup using the DATUM protocol and a Start9labs full node. The block reward of 3.134 BTC was valued at roughly $347,968 at the time.
Astronomical Odds: 5 TH/s vs 960 EH/s
To appreciate the magnitude of this feat, consider the global Bitcoin network hashrate stood at around 960 exahash per second (EH/s) when block 913272 was found. The miner’s 5 TH/s represents just 0.0000000052% of the total computing power. At the current difficulty of 136.04 trillion, finding a valid block requires approximately 5.84×10²³ hash attempts. Running at 5 trillion guesses per second, the device would need an average of 3,700 years to find a block. Statistically, the chance of hitting one block in a single day is about 1 in 1.35 million.
Ocean Mining announced the event on X (formerly Twitter), stating: “Block 913272 was found yesterday by a small miner: @snednode revealed that it was him, using a QAxe++, a Start9labs and DATUM on OCEAN. Seeing miners of all sizes have their voices heard by mining their own blocks and seeing decentralization happen in real time is why we do this.” The Nerdminer QAxe++ consumes between 72 and 76 watts of power and uses the same semiconductors found in Bitmain’s Antminer S21 Pro series, though the latter produces over 229 TH/s.
The Economics: $500 Investment Turns Into $348,000
If the same hashrate were directed into a traditional mining pool, the daily net profit would be only about $0.26 at an electricity cost of $0.04/kWh. Instead, by going solo, the miner struck a single 3.134 BTC block — a return of more than 600x after subtracting the hardware cost. Pools like Ocean Mining and Solo CKPool impose no formal minimum hashrate, making them attractive for lottery-style solo mining. However, at hashrates below 100 GH/s (0.1 TH/s), the probability of ever finding a block becomes effectively zero.
History Repeats: 3 TH/s Bitaxe Also Won in July 2024
This is not the first time a tiny miner has defied the odds. In July 2024, Solo CKPool developer Dr-ck reported that a 3 TH/s Bitaxe miner had found that pool’s 290th solo block. “This much hashrate only would find a block once every 3500 YEARS on average, or 1 in 1.2 MILLION chance per day,” he explained at the time. Both cases serve as powerful reminders that Bitcoin’s solo mining model, while highly speculative, can still reward the smallest participants.
Decentralization in Action
The success of Ocean Mining’s solo pool, powered by the DATUM protocol, underscores the importance of keeping Bitcoin mining accessible to all. By allowing miners to connect hardware directly to a full node without intermediary oversight, the system ensures that even individuals with modest equipment can contribute to block production. This helps prevent hashrate centralization and reinforces Bitcoin’s core ethos of permissionless participation. While the odds are overwhelmingly against a tiny miner, each success story proves that the network remains open to anyone willing to try their luck.