Network Congestion

Network congestion happens when more transactions are broadcast to a blockchain than its blocks can include, so pending transactions pile up in the mempool and fees rise as users bid for limited space. On fee-market chains such as Ethereum, congestion appears as a higher base fee plus the need for a larger priority fee to confirm quickly; on other networks it shows up as long queues or dropped transactions. Typical triggers include popular NFT mints, token launches, airdrop claims and cascading liquidations during volatile markets. If your transaction is stuck, the usual options are to wait or to replace it with a higher-fee version from the same wallet and nonce. Never send the funds again from another wallet assuming the first attempt failed.