Image credit: Shutterstock
A solo Bitcoin miner earned 3.157 BTC, worth about $199,300, after solving block 960,804 early Monday as the market monitored widening losses linked to vulnerable Coldcard wallets.
Bitcoin traded near $63,000 while researchers tracked a fourth wave of suspected wallet sweeps. Estimated losses connected to the incident have reached about 1,816 BTC, worth roughly $114 million, across more than 5,200 addresses.
Block 960,804 Pays Solo Miner 3.157 BTC
The miner received Bitcoin’s 3.125 BTC block subsidy and about 0.032 BTC in transaction fees. The combined payout was valued at approximately $199,300 when the block was confirmed.
No information has been disclosed about the miner’s hardware, hashrate or operating costs. Without those details, the probability of the equipment producing the winning hash cannot be calculated.
Solo operators receive nearly the full block payout when they succeed instead of sharing rewards with participants in a conventional mining pool. Their odds remain extremely low because they compete against industrial miners operating large fleets of specialized machines.
Bitaxe Miner Won Similar Payout Three Weeks Earlier
The result came about three weeks after another solo operator solved block 957,382 using a hobbyist-grade Bitaxe miner. That block produced a 3.1382 BTC payout, also valued near $200,000 at the time.
Independent miners have solved 13 Bitcoin blocks during 2026, according to available tracking data. The wins remain rare as network difficulty stays elevated and miners compete for a fixed 3.125 BTC subsidy plus transaction fees.
The equipment used to solve block 960,804 has not been identified, making it unclear whether the latest payout also came from a small-scale mining setup.
Four Coldcard Sweeps Move an Estimated 1,816 BTC
Researchers estimate that four waves of suspicious transactions have moved about 1,816 BTC from more than 5,200 addresses generated using affected Coldcard firmware since July 30.
The latest wave used Bitcoin’s replace-by-fee function, which allows an unconfirmed transaction to be replaced by another carrying a higher fee. Users who identify a pending unauthorized transfer may have a limited opportunity to submit a competing transaction first.
Coinkite has released patched firmware for affected Coldcard devices, but installing an update cannot strengthen seeds generated under vulnerable software. Users with affected seeds must create a new wallet on fixed firmware and transfer their Bitcoin to fresh addresses.
Researchers are continuing to monitor the suspected sweeps, while the miner behind block 960,804 has not disclosed further details about the equipment that produced the winning hash.
