7.3% of Bitcoin blocks during a recent three-day period were mined less than a minute apart, highlighting how frequently the network faces competing versions of its blockchain. A notable case on March 24, 2026, saw Antpool and Foundry USA produce different versions of block 941,881 within just 12 seconds of each other, briefly splitting Bitcoin’s history.
Since new blocks must propagate across the global network, miners sometimes discover valid blocks unaware of others found nearly simultaneously. This results in a rare state where two blocks at the same height exist, each backed by a faction of the network. Neither is invalid, but only one chain can prevail.
The tie-breaker isn’t about who finds the block first but which chain continues to grow with more proof-of-work. Foundry USA ultimately extended its chain by mining six blocks in a row, forcing Antpool’s competing block and others to become orphaned and discarded from the accepted blockchain. Transactions from these orphaned blocks that weren’t confirmed on the winning side return to the mempool, waiting to be mined again.
This mechanism ensures Bitcoin resolves conflicts without external arbitration, relying entirely on mining power to confirm the canonical chain.
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