About block 973,231
Bitcoin block 973,231 was mined by AntPool on October 26, 2026 at 11:42 AM UTC, 15 min 52 s after block 973,230. 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 2,979 transactions in 1.77 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.51 sat/vB, up from 0.13 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0214 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1464 BTC for this block.
Block 973,231 is number 1,520 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 496 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,769 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 209 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 280 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.