Mining real Bitcoin is increasingly out of reach for the average person, with the industry dominated by massive firms running warehouses full of super-powered computers. But there’s a popular iOS and Android game that turns the act into an amusing diversion—and pays you small bits of real Bitcoin just for tapping your phone screen.
Bitcoin Miner is a simple game that lets you fake-mine an array of popular cryptocurrencies, including BTC, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Solana—and rack up real satoshis, aka the smallest denomination of Bitcoin, all the while. And yes, you can withdraw the Bitcoin to a wallet and really spend it as you please. It’s real Bitcoin!
Granted, the amount of crypto you’ll earn is typically miniscule, but that’s true of all of these free-to-play crypto games. But it’s a nice bonus for a game that has attracted millions of players and continues to grow and expand. Here’s how to get started with Bitcoin Miner.
What is Bitcoin Miner?
Bitcoin Miner is a free-to-play iOS and Android game from Fumb Games. It’s an idle tapping game that tasks you with building an elite mining operation spanning multiple cryptocurrencies and locations, all presented in vibrant, retro-style pixel art with a chiptune soundtrack.
Fumb originally launched the game without real Bitcoin rewards. As co-founder Paul West told Decrypt’s GG, the game got almost zero traction at first.
“Nothing happened. Like, literally nothing happened at all,” he recalled, saying that the game only racked up hundreds of downloads in the first couple years.
'Bitcoin Miner' Was a Dead Game—Until It Started Paying Real BTC Earnings
Idle tapping game Bitcoin Miner was developed in the wake of the 2017 bull run as a colorful and amusing riff on the wild world of crypto. And to hear Fumb Games co-founder Paul West tell it now, almost nobody cared when the game first launched on iOS and Android. “Nothing happened. Like, literally nothing happened at all,” West told Decrypt’s GG. West said they didn’t promote the game due to hurdles with the Bitcoin branding and that even getting the game live on the App Store and Play Store wa...
It was only after Fumb teamed up with Bitcoin payments startup Zebedee—and integrated its Lightning Network technology to enable BTC micropayments—that the game started taking off. Now it has racked up millions of downloads and is seeing its daily user count steadily rise.
How to play Bitcoin Miner
Bitcoin Miner is a “clicker” or “tapper” game, similar to older games like Cookie Clicker and the recent crop of Telegram crypto games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat. When you tap a button at the bottom of the screen, you earn in-game coins for “mining cryptocurrencies.” Again, no, you’re not really mining crypto. It's a video game—a simulation, if you will.
But there’s more to it than that. As you rack up coins, you can unlock new cryptocurrencies to fake-mine with your growing operation. You can also upgrade your rig for each coin to super-charge your in-game earnings, invest in developmental upgrades, assign managers and extra boosts, and more.
That’s all handled through menu screens, and it’s all pretty easy to understand. Be sure to check out our Bitcoin Miner guide with several tips to help you make the most of the game’s various boosts, which will let you earn not only more in-game coins but also more real Bitcoin.
'Bitcoin Miner' Game Guide: 7 Tips to Earn More BTC on iOS and Android
Bitcoin Miner is one of the most compelling mobile games we’ve played that pays out actual Bitcoin along the way. Unlike BTC-infused riffs on solitaire, sudoku, and other classic games, it does so in a colorful, recursive game about mining fake cryptocurrency. It’s a slam dunk for crypto enthusiasts, even though—as with all of these games—the actual amount of Bitcoin you’ll earn for casual play comes out to pennies per hour. But as we’ve logged hours into the game, we’ve discovered strategies an...
How much can you earn?
It’s small fries. We’ve played hours and hours of Bitcoin Miner over the span of more than a year, and at best you’re likely to earn pennies’ worth of BTC each hour you put into the game. We shared more about our earning experience in this write-up, though your experience may vary based on how actively you play and how much you use the various boosts.
Bitcoin Miner doesn’t offer a serious earning opportunity, but steady users can potentially rack up hundreds of satoshis—each worth 1/100,000,000 Bitcoin—per day.
You Can Earn Real Bitcoin for Playing This Crypto Mining Game—Here's How Much
We’ve covered a lot of mobile games that pay players Bitcoin rewards, but Bitcoin Miner is the most literal interpretation we’ve seen to date: You’re mining fake cryptocurrency in this iOS and Android game, but can cash out real Bitcoin. As Decrypt’s GG recently reported, Bitcoin Miner first launched several years ago without real BTC earnings baked in, and it went nowhere. But once Fumb Games tried implementing the ability to earn and cash out satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin, or 1/100,00...
And cashing out is easy: Just tap the button with the orange icon at the top of the screen, connect your Zebedee wallet, and hit Redeem. Bitcoin Miner now has a variable amount of satoshis that can be claimed per day, based on the price of Bitcoin. Currently, as of this latest update, you can withdraw 330 satoshis daily—but it used to be 500 per day.
Luckily, you can pile up more in the game and then just withdraw them in batches to your Zebedee wallet, where you can spend or send your earned Bitcoin as you please.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa
Editor's note: This story was originally published on August 25, 2024 and last updated with new details on March 5, 2025.
