About block 971,668
Bitcoin block 971,668 was mined by Foundry USA on October 16, 2026 at 4:52 AM UTC, 17 min 10 s after block 971,667. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 3,057 transactions in 1.63 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.35 sat/vB, up from 0.30 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0206 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, Foundry USA earned 3.1456 BTC for this block.
Block 971,668 is number 1,973 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 481; 43 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 971,711. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,332 blocks after this one.
Its hash starts with 19 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 262 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 7 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.