Recently, when the chain got congested, I just stared at the mempool in a daze. You think clicking “Send” is the end of it, but it’s really only putting your transaction into a queued corridor. Miners/block producers prioritize picking up transactions with higher fees—if your fee is too low, it just hangs there, like a delivery rider passing by your door but refusing to come in… Even more awkward: when you change the gas and resend (replacing the same nonce), the older transaction still floats around inside the node for a while. A couple of days ago, I even saw a swap for 0x3a…9f stuck for more than ten minutes, and then a string of pricier transactions pushed it into the back of the line.

Meanwhile, that other side of things is again using ETF fund flows and the risk appetite of the US markets to explain every rise and fall. In a nutshell, if the chart looks good, everything can be tied to it— but when you actually act on-chain, the experience is more like this: once the network gets clogged, emotions and costs rise together, and even trying to “bottom fish” has to clear the queue first. Anyway, when it’s congested now, I’d rather do less—or just wait for the next wave when blocks are emptier—so I don’t end up arguing with myself.