About block 971,996
Bitcoin block 971,996 was mined by AntPool on October 18, 2026 at 1:02 PM UTC, 6 min 50 s after block 971,995. That is faster than the 10-minute average the network aims for: blocks come in bursts because finding one is pure chance.
It confirmed 4,100 transactions in 1.75 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.00 sat/vB, down from 2.01 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0139 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1389 BTC for this block.
Block 971,996 is number 285 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,731 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,004 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. AntPool found 231 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 13 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.