About block 972,973
Bitcoin block 972,973 was mined by MARA Pool on October 24, 2026 at 8:54 PM UTC, 18 min 45 s after block 972,972. 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 3,964 transactions in 1.65 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.98 sat/vB, up from 0.14 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0211 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, MARA Pool earned 3.1461 BTC for this block.
Block 972,973 is number 1,262 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 754 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,027 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. MARA Pool found 47 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 651 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.