About block 972,709
Bitcoin block 972,709 was mined by AntPool on October 23, 2026 at 3:54 AM UTC, 17 min 24 s after block 972,708. 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 3,780 transactions in 1.58 MB (99.9% 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 0.0155 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1405 BTC for this block.
Block 972,709 is number 998 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 1,018 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,291 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 205 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 1,021 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.