About block 971,597
Bitcoin block 971,597 was mined by Foundry USA on October 15, 2026 at 4:39 PM UTC, 38 min 47 s after block 971,596. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 3,351 transactions in 1.63 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 6.00 sat/vB, up from 1.00 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.1389 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, Foundry USA earned 3.2639 BTC for this block.
Block 971,597 is number 1,902 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 481; 114 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 971,711. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,403 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 9 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.