About block 971,256
Bitcoin block 971,256 was mined by Foundry USA on October 13, 2026 at 2:29 PM UTC, 18 min 0 s after block 971,255. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 4,232 transactions in 1.58 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.00 sat/vB, and all fees added up to 0.0283 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, Foundry USA earned 3.1533 BTC for this block.
Block 971,256 is number 1,561 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 481; 455 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 971,711. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,744 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. Foundry USA found 257 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 336 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.