These days, when the chain gets congested, I keep an eye on that transaction "queue" in the mempool: You think you've already clicked Swap, but in reality, you've just slipped a small note into the line waiting for miners/validators to flip the card. When the line gets long and someone pays extra to cut in front, your transaction might get dragged along, and if the routing fee quote changes early, slippage can accidentally turn into a voluntary donation; what's even more frustrating is that some transactions get stuck for too long, and in the end, they either fail and waste some gas, or succeed but at a price you didn't expect.

Recently, with all the speculation about testnet incentives, points, and whether the mainnet will issue tokens, the chain suddenly became lively. I instead focus on the "signal": under the same gas settings, whether my transaction consistently gets included in blocks or keeps pending/replacing. If it starts frequently getting stuck, I’d rather slow down, lower my expectations, or wait for the next market dip before acting—anyway, I don’t like to fight congestion head-on.