About block 973,042
Bitcoin block 973,042 was mined by AntPool on October 25, 2026 at 8:33 AM UTC, 27 min 53 s after block 973,041. 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 3,229 transactions in 1.69 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.25 sat/vB, and all fees added up to 0.0350 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1600 BTC for this block.
Block 973,042 is number 1,331 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 685 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,958 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 203 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 553 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.