About block 972,981
Bitcoin block 972,981 was mined by ViaBTC on October 24, 2026 at 10:14 PM UTC, 26 min 0 s after block 972,980. 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 3,868 transactions in 1.68 MB (99.8% 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 0.0261 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, ViaBTC earned 3.1511 BTC for this block.
Block 972,981 is number 1,270 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 746 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,019 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. ViaBTC found 82 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 635 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.