Bitcoin's blockchain recorded its second-highest single-block transaction count on Nov. 7, 2026. Block 974961 processed 11,255 transactions, pushing the network within striking distance of an 11-year-old record.
This milestone places block 974961 only 984 transactions behind the all-time record set in August 2015, when block 367853 confirmed 12,239 transactions.
The Nov. 7 event followed another significant block three days prior. On Nov. 4, block 974557 contained 10,573 transactions. Developer Mononaut, who tracks blockchain data, flagged the activity, initially identifying it as the second-highest count ever recorded.
Antpool mined block 974961 at 18:24:12 UTC. The block measured approximately 1.1 megabytes and consumed 3,993,844 weight units—roughly 99.85 percent of Bitcoin's 4 million maximum block weight.
The block's economics revealed minimal fee pressure. It collected approximately 0.002405 BTC in fees, a negligible addition to the standard 3.125 BTC block subsidy. The structure contained 11,794 inputs and 23,122 outputs, indicating densely packed compact transactions rather than conventional high-value transfers.
Bitcoin's design accommodated this transaction volume without requiring proportional block space or elevated fees—a demonstration of the network's efficiency when block weight capacity is optimized.
The 2015 record was produced by F2pool under Bitcoin's original 1 MB size ceiling. That pool packed 12,239 transactions into approximately 999.96 kilobytes, an exceptional result within earlier network constraints. The 2015 spike coincided with what observers termed spam attacks or deliberate network stress tests—campaigns generating large quantities of tiny, low-value outputs to increase congestion.
