About block 972,026
Bitcoin block 972,026 was mined by Foundry USA on October 18, 2026 at 4:52 PM UTC, 12 min 58 s after block 972,025. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 3,638 transactions in 1.64 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.02 sat/vB, up from 0.20 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0158 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, Foundry USA earned 3.1408 BTC for this block.
Block 972,026 is number 315 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,701 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,974 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 241 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 12 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.