About block 972,997
Bitcoin block 972,997 was mined by ViaBTC on October 25, 2026 at 12:53 AM UTC, 43 min 30 s after block 972,996. 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 3,369 transactions in 1.54 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.29 sat/vB, up from 0.14 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0338 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, ViaBTC earned 3.1588 BTC for this block.
Block 972,997 is number 1,286 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 730 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 77,003 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. ViaBTC found 82 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 612 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.