About block 972,356
Bitcoin block 972,356 was mined by AntPool on October 20, 2026 at 4:59 PM UTC, 16 min 11 s after block 972,355. 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 3,296 transactions in 1.54 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 3.00 sat/vB, up from 1.03 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0409 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1659 BTC for this block.
Block 972,356 is number 645 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,371 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,644 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. AntPool found 211 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 11 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.