When the network is congested, watching your transaction queue up in the mempool is actually quite similar to squeezing onto a subway during the morning rush: you think that once you’ve lined up, you’ll be able to board, but then you find someone cuts in line, or someone makes a last-minute transfer. Put plainly, the moment you broadcast it is just a “registration”; afterward, it may be bumped out by someone offering a higher fee, picked over by the block builder, and even targeted by snipers—especially those “openly advertised” swaps. In the end, whether you get included in a block is a matter of probability, not destiny. Sometimes adding a little more fee gets you in; other times the market wobbles, and suddenly everyone across the network is fighting to get in at the same time, so by the time your transaction is included, the price to get into the block has already changed.

Recently, I’ve also been hearing that in some areas taxes may be increased, compliance may tighten, and then later it loosens again—so when everyone’s expectations for deposits and withdrawals shift, that kind of sudden collective surge in on-chain congestion becomes even more frequent… Personally, I’d rather go slower and use ways to protect transactions. If you’re in a hurry, it won’t really help—so I’ll just have a sip of tea first.