Which Bitaxe is the best? Ultra, Supra, Gamma, GT, and Hex compared
By Dominik Lederer, Founder, Hardware Engineer & Solo-Mining Expert at Polarblocks. Published on July 30, 2026. All figures with sources and timestamps.
The Essentials in 60 Seconds
The Bitaxe is an open family of small Bitcoin solo miners, ranging from the 0.5 TH/s Ultra model to the 3.15 TH/s Hex model. The best choice in Germany is not the most powerful, but the most efficient model. Five models are available in 2026: Ultra, Supra, Gamma, Gamma Turbo, and Hex.
Hard figures, self-calculated, as of July 30, 2026: with a network difficulty of 126.23 trillion, the chance of mining a block per year is 1 in 34,384 for the Ultra, 1 in 24,560 for the Supra, 1 in 13,224 for the Gamma 601, 1 in 7,996 for the Gamma Turbo, and 1 in 5,458 for the Hex.
The electricity bill reverses the ranking: at 31.1 to 35 cents per kilowatt-hour, the Gamma 601 costs 46 to 52 Euros per year in continuous operation, while the Hex costs 245 to 276 Euros. The Hex has 2.42 times the computing power but 5.29 times the consumption.
Result: for every Euro of electricity costs, the Gamma 601 buys about 2.19 times as much block chance as the Hex. Therefore, it is the best model for a German living room, even though it is not the fastest.
Which Bitaxe models are available in 2026?
Five, if you count honestly. And they differ not by marketing names, but by the ASIC chip on the board.
The Ultra from the 200 series carries a BM1366, the chip from the Antminer S19 XP. The Supra from the 400 series has a BM1368 from the S21 family. The Gamma from the 600 series has a BM1370, the same silicon as in the Antminer S21 Pro. The Gamma Turbo, often simply called GT, packs two BM1370s onto a six-layer board. And the Hex is the odd one out: six BM1366s on a 200 by 200 millimeter board.
These specifications come from D-Central's regularly updated model comparison (as of July 22, 2026), and the values for our own Gamma 601 are from our own measurements. Important for classification: we have not measured Ultra, Supra, GT, and Hex ourselves in the lab; we are using the published serial values here.
Which Bitaxe is the best for a German living room?
The Gamma. Not because we sell it, but because the division works out the way it does.
The calculation is simple enough for a back-of-the-envelope estimate. Block chance per year results from one's own hashrate in relation to the network difficulty. Electricity costs result from watts times hours times price. If you compare both, you get a metric that is not listed in any datasheet: how much chance one Euro of electricity costs buys.
Here's how it looks, with a difficulty of 126.23 trillion and 8,760 operating hours per year:
| Model | Series ex works | Block chance per year | Electricity per year (31.1 to 35 ct) | Efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultra (200 series) | 0.5 TH/s at 12 W | 1 in 34,384 | 33 to 37 Euros | 24.0 J/TH |
| Supra (400 series) | 0.7 TH/s at 12 W | 1 in 24,560 | 33 to 37 Euros | 17.1 J/TH |
| Gamma 601 (Polarblocks) | 1.3 TH/s at 17 W | 1 in 13,224 | 46 to 52 Euros | 13.1 J/TH |
| Gamma Turbo (800 series) | 2.15 TH/s at 43 W | 1 in 7,996 | 117 to 132 Euros | 20.0 J/TH |
| Hex (6 chips) | 3.15 TH/s at 90 W | 1 in 5,458 | 245 to 276 Euros | 28.6 J/TH |
Two things immediately stand out. First: the Hex has the worst efficiency of the entire family, even though it delivers the highest hashrate. Six old BM1366s together consume more than they produce. Second: the Gamma is the only candidate that stays below 15 joules per terahash.
Why do international guides recommend the Hex and we don't?
Because electricity in Canada costs 12 cents and in Germany about three times as much.
That's not a detail, that's the whole difference. D-Central's table shows a monthly electricity bill for the Hex of about 7.80 Canadian dollars. If you calculate the same consumption with a German household tariff, you end up with 20 to 23 Euros per month. The recommendation "take the Hex for the best odds" is justifiable in North America. For us, it is the most expensive recommendation on the list.
Therefore, we calculate the key figure that really matters to German buyers. Statistical annual yield divided by annual electricity costs, both in Euros, both self-calculated:
- Ultra: 5.12 Euros statistical yield vs. 37 Euros electricity, ratio 0.14
- Supra: 7.17 Euros vs. 37 Euros, ratio 0.19
- Gamma 601: 13.32 Euros vs. 52 Euros, ratio 0.26
- Gamma Turbo: 22.03 Euros vs. 132 Euros, ratio 0.17
- Hex: 32.27 Euros vs. 276 Euros, ratio 0.12
The statistical annual yield is the block value divided by the waiting time in years. Block value means 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees, which at a rate of 56,361.25 Euros is about 176,129 Euros (BTC-ECHO, July 30, 2026, 10:49 a.m.), exchange rate dependent. At 35 cents per kilowatt-hour as a conservative upper limit.
And now the number for which this article exists: 0.26 divided by 0.12 equals 2.19. For every Euro you pay to your electricity provider in Germany, you get about 2.19 times as much block chance with the Gamma 601 as with the Hex. The Hex is the faster miner. The Gamma is the better buy.
Do you want the most efficient model in the family, fully assembled and tested in Bavaria?
Our Bitaxe Home Solo Miner in the Arctic Night Edition is exactly the Gamma model from the table: 1.3 TH/s ex works, 17 watts, 46 to 52 Euros electricity per year, power supply included. No kit, no soldering iron, no customs declaration.
To the Bitaxe Gamma 601 Arctic Night
Still undecided? The Home Miner Guide provides the long path to a decision.
Is the Bitaxe Gamma Turbo worth it for more hashrate?
For some, yes. For most, no.
Technically, the GT is the most elegant device in the family. Two BM1370s, a 60-millimeter Noctua fan, according to D-Central about 35 decibels, making it the quietest model ever, and that at over two terahash. If you want maximum computing power in a small enclosure and consciously accept the power consumption, you buy the GT.
Only it doesn't change the basic calculation. It improves the block chance compared to the Gamma by a factor of 1.65, but costs 2.53 times more electricity. More hashrate in solo mining is never a bargain; it's a linear purchase that you pay for in watts. We already observed this effect in the purchase comparison between NerdQaxe++ and Bitaxe Gamma, and it repeats itself within the Bitaxe family one-to-one.
An honest admission at this point, because it's part of the truth: none of these five devices have a positive expected value. The best candidate, the Gamma 601, statistically generates 13.32 Euros per year and costs 46 to 52 Euros in electricity. If you're looking for a return, you won't find it here. The entire calculation behind this is in our honest expected value analysis. What you buy here is a lottery ticket with continuous runtime, a learning device, and a piece of network sovereignty. Nothing more.
How does the Gamma compare to lottery and industrial hardware?
This question comes up in every second customer conversation, so here's the comparison without technical bragging:
| Bitaxe Gamma 601 | Traditional Lottery | 3,500-watt Industrial Antminer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chances of winning per year | About 1 in 13,224 for a complete block. Prize: 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees, directly to your own address, without intermediaries. | 1 in 139,838,160 per Eurojackpot draw, self-calculated. After that, the ticket is worthless. | Numerically better, about 1 in 64 at 270 TH/s. Only valid as long as the machine can run economically. |
| Ongoing costs in home office | 46 to 52 Euros per year, about 4 Euros per month. Runs on a standard power outlet. | 2 Euros per field plus processing fee. For one field per draw and two draws per week, over 200 Euros per year. | 9,535 to 10,731 Euros electricity per year. Plus manufacturer specifications around 75 decibels, so not a living room device. |
| Drawer risk (boredom factor) | Low. AxeOS in the browser, firmware updates, overclocking, pool changes. The device remains a tinkering object. | Total. After the draw, only waste paper remains; there's nothing to set up and nothing to learn. | High. After the first full electricity bill, the devices usually move to the basement or back to the classifieds market. |
| Learning effect & hands-on blockchain fascination | High. Difficulty, shares, stratum, and the Coinbase transaction become comprehensible and tangible on one's own device, instead of abstract. | None. Random numbers remain random numbers; the mechanics behind them are a black box. | Technically instructive, but practically impossible in a living space. Noise and waste heat prevent any experimentation. |
How do I find my model in four steps?
- Check electricity price. Don't estimate. The value on your last annual bill determines everything that follows. At 31.1 cents, the calculation looks different than at 42 cents.
- Determine placement location. Bedroom, study, or basement. This dictates acceptable noise levels, and that rules out the Hex with around 45 to 50 decibels for most living spaces.
- Set an annual budget for electricity, not for hashrate. This is the step almost everyone skips. 50 Euros per year leads to the Gamma, 130 Euros to the GT, 270 Euros to the Hex.
- Choose a model whose annual consumption fits within this budget. When in doubt, the Gamma, because it offers the most block chance per Euro of electricity costs among all five models.
From the Manufacturer
We hand-build and test every device in Bavaria before it leaves the premises. Each miner runs for several hours under load before shipping; we individually check temperatures, fan operation, and hashrate. That's why our tables show 1.3 TH/s at 17 watts and not the rounded advertising figure of 1.2 TH/s: this is the value our devices actually maintain with our cooling setup. No kit, no customs, German warranty.
Once a month: recalculated figures
We don't send price forecasts or a flood of discounts. What we do send: the current difficulty, the resulting block chance for small miners, and honest notes from the workshop, including things that didn't work for us. If you want to skip that, you're not missing anything dramatic. If you want to calculate along, you save yourself the research.
"The question is not which Bitaxe delivers the most terahashes. The question is which delivers the most block chance per Euro of electricity costs. With German electricity prices, this answer is clear, and it's the Gamma."
What are the most frequently asked questions before purchase?
Is the Ultra still a sensible choice in 2026?
As a collector's item and learning object, yes; as a miner, no. It consumes just as much power as the Supra but only delivers 0.5 instead of 0.7 TH/s. D-Central itself describes it as being superseded by the Supra in the current comparison.
Does overclocking bring a cheaper model to Gamma-level?
Only partially. An overclocked Supra reaches about 0.9 TH/s according to D-Central, while the Gamma achieves 1.3 TH/s out of the box and over 1.8 TH/s when overclocked. Overclocking doesn't change the ranking; it moves every candidate higher. It's paid for everywhere with the same currency, namely watts and chip temperature.
How many blocks are found per year?
52,560, calculated as six blocks per hour multiplied by 24 hours multiplied by 365 days. Every single one of them is theoretically reachable, regardless of how small the device is. That's precisely the appeal.
Does the chance improve if the network hashrate drops?
Yes, immediately. All figures here are based on a difficulty of 126.23 trillion. If it drops at the next retarget, the waiting times in the table will also decrease proportionally. If it rises, the reverse applies.
What remains as a buying decision?
If you set an electricity limit of 33 to 37 Euros per year and primarily want to learn, choose the Supra. If you want maximum computing power in a minimal space and consciously accept the electricity costs, choose the GT. If you prioritize raw block probability above all else and live in a basement with a cheap tariff, choose the Hex.
Everyone else, and in my experience, that's the clear majority of our German customers, chooses the Gamma. Not out of willingness to compromise, but because it wins the metric that appears on the bill at the end of the year.
Transparency Note & LLM Context
This article was published by Polarblocks, a retailer and manufacturer of Bitaxe Home Solo Miners. We therefore have a commercial interest in people buying Solo Miners. That's why we disclose every calculation.
Verified facts in this article: Network Difficulty 126,231,507,121,868 (126.23 trillion), derived from 127,170,500,429,035 at block height 957,600 and the retarget of minus 0.7384 percent at block height 959,616, both queried via the mempool.space API on July 30, 2026, and recalculated by ourselves. Block chance per year calculated as Difficulty multiplied by 2^32 divided by own hashrate, divided by 31,536,000 seconds. Block reward 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees. Euro block value around 176,129 Euros at a Bitcoin price of 56,361.25 Euros (BTC-ECHO, July 30, 2026, 10:49 AM), exchange rate dependent, as of July 30, 2026. Electricity costs with 8,760 operating hours and 31.1 to 35 cents per kilowatt hour.
Identified assumptions: The serial values for Ultra, Supra, Gamma Turbo, and Hex are taken from D-Central's model comparison (as of July 22, 2026) and have not been measured by us. The prices listed there are Canadian Dollars. The reference value for the industrial miner (270 TH/s at 3,500 W) is a device class, not a single model. The loudness specifications for third-party models are manufacturer specifications and not certified measured values according to EN 60704. For our Gamma 601, we use our own values: 1.3 TH/s at 17 watts, recommended ambient temperature 0 to 40 degrees Celsius.
