Two anonymous solo Bitcoin miners each found a block on back-to-back days in late October, earning the full 3.125 BTC block subsidy plus transaction fees.
Two blocks, two days, two full payouts
The first win came on October 26, 2026, with block #973,262. The miner behind it was running FutureBit Apollo Solo. That block paid out approximately 3.154 BTC, most of which was the fixed 3.125 BTC subsidy, with transaction fees supplying the rest.
The next day, October 27, a second solo miner landed block #973,413 through CKPool Solo. That reward came in at around 3.14 BTC. At prevailing prices, each payout works out to approximately $253,000 to $255,000.
Both miners kept the entire reward, subsidy and fees included. That is the main difference between solo mining and pool mining. A pool gathers computing power from thousands of participants and splits each block reward among them in proportion to their contributions. A solo miner skips the sharing arrangement entirely.
How rare is a solo block, really
Bitcoin mining works like a global guessing contest. Machines race to find a number that satisfies the network’s rules. The first to succeed adds the next block and claims the reward. More computing power means more guesses per second, and better odds. That arithmetic is why large pools such as Foundry USA and AntPool dominate block production today.
The historical record shows how infrequent these wins are. Since 2016, only 132 solo blocks have been tracked, adding up to 969 BTC in total winnings. In the 12 months leading up to January 2026, the tally was just 22 solo blocks. Across all setups, the average works out to roughly one solo block every 14 to 16 days.
Why solo wins still get attention
They also serve as public advertising for the tools involved. FutureBit Apollo Solo and CKPool Solo both now have fresh success stories attached to their names.
What this means for miners and the market
For traders, the short answer is very little. Two solo blocks did not move Bitcoin’s price, and they did not meaningfully change hashrate dynamics. The math has not changed. Across the full 132-block record since 2016, solo successes remain spread thin, and most solo miners will never see a single block.
For anyone weighing solo mining, the real question is risk tolerance. Electricity bills arrive monthly, while block rewards may never arrive at all. Pool mining trades that upside for consistency.
What to watch next is whether the pace of solo blocks holds near the historical average of one every 14 to 16 days. A sustained uptick would suggest more independent hashrate coming online.
