I was just trying to make a small adjustment on-chain, and as soon as I submitted it, it went into the mempool queue... It looks like a food delivery "the rider has accepted the order but hasn't moved," which makes me a bit anxious and helpless. During congestion, your transaction is basically being squeezed at the door along with others, competing on who pays higher fees: whoever offers more "value," gets in first; if you pay too little, you're stuck, if you pay too much, it hurts, and in the end, if the price drops or the status changes, it might fail outright, wasting a fee.

What's more annoying is that these days, the group is again talking about stablecoin regulation/reserve audits/de-pegging rumors. As soon as everyone's emotions flare up, they start frantically swapping on-chain, and congestion doubles immediately. To put it simply, the mempool is an emotion amplifier: the more panicked, the more crowded, and the more crowded, the more expensive. I'm trying to split into smaller orders and avoid constantly adjusting prices, waiting for the fog to clear a bit before acting—anyway, panicking is useless.