About block 973,956
Bitcoin block 973,956 was mined by AntPool on October 31, 2026 at 9:12 AM UTC, 10 min 17 s after block 973,955. 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 2,051 transactions in 1.71 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.01 sat/vB, down from 2.21 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0185 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1435 BTC for this block.
Block 973,956 is number 229 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 483; 1,787 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 975,743. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,044 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 197 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 6 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.