About block 972,616
Bitcoin block 972,616 was mined by AntPool on October 22, 2026 at 12:42 PM UTC, 21 min 18 s after block 972,615. 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 3,788 transactions in 1.58 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 3.00 sat/vB, down from 3.91 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0377 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1627 BTC for this block.
Block 972,616 is number 905 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,111 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,384 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 206 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 8 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.