About block 971,221
Bitcoin block 971,221 was mined by AntPool on October 13, 2026 at 9:01 AM UTC, 12 min 18 s after block 971,220. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 4,431 transactions in 1.57 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.00 sat/vB, and all fees added up to 0.0189 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1439 BTC for this block.
Block 971,221 is number 1,526 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 481; 490 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 971,711. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,779 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. AntPool found 213 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 371 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.