Recently, people keep saying, “there are opportunities on-chain again.” My first reaction isn’t profit—it’s: is this opportunity for me to go pay transaction fees for other people? Sandwiches and arbitrage sound pretty smart, but the piece of meat you see might have already been queued up and cut by robots. Once you chase the price, you end up sandwiched in—slippage + Gas are both carried away.

Before I place an order, I check the mempool congestion first. I’d rather be slower and pay less than force my way in during the busiest times. Especially now, when the outside world is interpreting ETF fund flows, U.S. stock risk appetite, and crypto price ups and downs together—once sentiment heats up, on-chain costs also skyrocket. In plain terms, the most stable “returns” are often from miners and searchers.

Anyway, I just treat myself like an accountant: for today’s trade, if the transaction fee is acceptable—like the cost of a bubble tea—I’ll do it; otherwise, I’ll just skip it.