Today the chain was congested again for a while, and my swap order was queued in the mempool to the point of questioning life... Basically, you submitted the transaction first, but miners/validators don’t necessarily process your order first; whoever offers a higher tip or whose transaction looks better gets priority. You’re watching the quote and thinking it looks good, but in a few minutes, it might get front-run, hit the slippage limit, or even fail outright—yet you still have to pay the gas, which really hurts.

By the way, I thought of the recent NFT royalty debate, which is essentially a fight over “secondary liquidity” and “who pays the bill,” especially obvious during network congestion: costs go up, and everyone is less willing to place limit orders or pay extra fees.

Anyway, next time I’ll probably do this: avoid trading during peak hours if possible, split large orders or reduce chasing prices when necessary, and don’t open the slippage too wide. How do you usually decide whether to wait or cancel this order?