About block 972,696
Bitcoin block 972,696 was mined by SECPOOL on October 23, 2026 at 2:48 AM UTC, 31 min 19 s after block 972,695. 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 3,178 transactions in 1.50 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.00 sat/vB, up from 0.14 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0267 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, SECPOOL earned 3.1517 BTC for this block.
Block 972,696 is number 985 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,031 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,304 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. SECPOOL found 38 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 1,037 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.