About block 972,268
Bitcoin block 972,268 was mined by ViaBTC on October 20, 2026 at 5:37 AM UTC, 18 min 53 s after block 972,267. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent draw with the same tiny chance.
It confirmed 3,211 transactions in 1.47 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.00 sat/vB, up from 0.14 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0167 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, ViaBTC earned 3.1417 BTC for this block.
Block 972,268 is number 557 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,459 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,732 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. ViaBTC found 99 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 18 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.