About block 971,988
Bitcoin block 971,988 was mined by MARA Pool on October 18, 2026 at 11:48 AM UTC, 11 min 1 s after block 971,987. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 4,476 transactions in 1.48 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 0.91 sat/vB, up from 0.37 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0129 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, MARA Pool earned 3.1379 BTC for this block.
Block 971,988 is number 277 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,739 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,012 blocks after this one.
Its hash starts with 21 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 8 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.