About block 973,697
Bitcoin block 973,697 was mined by AntPool on October 29, 2026 at 2:23 PM UTC, 5 min 21 s after block 973,696. That is faster than the 10-minute average the network aims for: blocks come in bursts because finding one is pure chance.
It confirmed 2,078 transactions in 1.77 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.01 sat/vB, down from 3.01 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0288 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1538 BTC for this block.
Block 973,697 is number 1,986 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 30 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,303 blocks after this one.
Its hash starts with 21 zeros: that is the proof of work, a number below the target that the whole network’s hashrate had to search for. AntPool found 208 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 12 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.