About block 969,996
Bitcoin block 969,996 was mined by ViaBTC on October 5, 2026 at 10:23 AM UTC, 24 min 32 s after block 969,995. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 4,328 transactions in 1.62 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.00 sat/vB, up from 1.00 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0332 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, ViaBTC earned 3.1582 BTC for this block.
Block 969,996 is number 301 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 481; 1,715 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 971,711. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 80,004 blocks after this one.
Its hash starts with 20 zeros: that is the proof of work, a number below the target that the whole network’s hashrate had to search for. ViaBTC found 106 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 1,596 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.