About block 973,970
Bitcoin block 973,970 was mined by AntPool on October 31, 2026 at 11:44 AM UTC, 31 min 28 s after block 973,969. 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 2,556 transactions in 1.29 MB (99.9% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.34 sat/vB, up from 1.02 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0391 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1641 BTC for this block.
Block 973,970 is number 243 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 483; 1,773 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 975,743. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,030 blocks after this one.
Its hash starts with 20 zeros: that is the proof of work, a number below the target that the whole network’s hashrate had to search for. AntPool found 199 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 8 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.