About block 973,698
Bitcoin block 973,698 was mined by ViaBTC on October 29, 2026 at 2:24 PM UTC, 1 min 7 s after block 973,697. That is faster than the 10-minute average the network aims for: blocks come in bursts because finding one is pure chance.
It confirmed 3,526 transactions in 1.76 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.00 sat/vB, down from 2.01 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0179 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, ViaBTC earned 3.1429 BTC for this block.
Block 973,698 is number 1,987 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 482; 29 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 973,727. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,302 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 88 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 11 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.