About block 973,991
Bitcoin block 973,991 was mined by AntPool on October 31, 2026 at 3:31 PM UTC, 19 min 28 s after block 973,990. 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 3,232 transactions in 1.56 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.00 sat/vB, up from 0.13 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0262 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, AntPool earned 3.1512 BTC for this block.
Block 973,991 is number 264 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 483; 1,752 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 975,743. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,009 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 202 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 13 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.