About block 971,986
Bitcoin block 971,986 was mined by MARA Pool on October 18, 2026 at 11:33 AM UTC, 15 min 37 s after block 971,985. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 4,879 transactions in 1.55 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.01 sat/vB, up from 0.44 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0169 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, MARA Pool earned 3.1419 BTC for this block.
Block 971,986 is number 275 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,741 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,014 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. MARA Pool found 53 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 9 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.