About block 972,987
Bitcoin block 972,987 was mined by AntPool on October 24, 2026 at 11:27 PM UTC, 13 min 54 s after block 972,986. 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 2,603 transactions in 1.69 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.00 sat/vB, down from 2.40 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0699 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1949 BTC for this block.
Block 972,987 is number 1,276 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 740 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,013 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 628 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.