How to unstuck a stuck Ethereum transaction
A pending Ethereum transaction usually means the gas fee you set was below what the network needs right now. Because Ethereum confirms transactions in strict nonce order, one stuck transaction freezes everything after it. The fix is to broadcast a replacement that uses the same nonce and pays a higher fee.
Step 1 — Find the pending transaction. Open your wallet's activity list and note the nonce of the oldest pending transaction. That nonce is the key: nothing newer from the same address can confirm until it is mined or replaced.
Step 2 — Replace it by fee. Build a new transaction with the same nonce and a gas fee at least 10% higher (EIP-1559 requires the max fee and priority fee to both go up). Broadcasting it makes validators prefer the newer, better-paid transaction.
Step 3 — Wait for confirmation. Once the replacement is mined, the original stuck transaction is overwritten and your wallet is unblocked. On normal demand this takes 10–15 minutes.
If your wallet's built-in button cannot raise the fee enough, a replacement signed from a full node does the job reliably.
Quick answers
Why is my whole wallet stuck, not just one transfer?
Ethereum processes transactions in nonce order. If nonce 5 is pending, nonce 6, 7 and so on all wait behind it. Replacing the oldest pending transaction by fee unblocks the rest.
Can I lose my funds by unstucking a transaction?
No. A replacement by fee does not move your funds anywhere new — it only re-submits the same transfer with a higher fee. Cancelling sends a zero-value transfer to yourself.
How do I know the replacement worked?
Watch the replacement's hash on a block explorer. Once it shows as confirmed, the original pending transaction disappears and later transactions begin confirming.