If several transactions in your wallet are stuck in a row, do not start with the newest one. Start with the transaction that has the smallest nonce.
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Nonce is the account's "transaction sequence number." It starts at 0 and increases by 1. If the transaction with nonce=5 is stuck, transactions with nonce=6, 7, and 8 have to wait in line, even if their gas fees are high.
What to do: Find the stuck transaction with the lowest nonce and handle it first. The goal is to move the car blocking the road so the cars behind it can move.
How to do it:
First confirm one thing: Is the transaction stuck in Pending status, or was it already confirmed but the wallet UI has not refreshed?
Open Etherscan (a block explorer), enter your wallet address, and look in the "Transactions" list:
If the transaction status is Pending → it is really stuck and needs to be handled.
If the status is Success but your wallet still shows Pending → the wallet UI has not synced. Go to MetaMask settings and click "Reset Account." This does not charge fees and does not affect funds.
After you confirm it is Pending, follow the steps below.
Case A: Only 1 transaction is stuck, and there is no queue behind it
Write down the nonce value of the stuck transaction (you can see it on the Etherscan transaction details page or in MetaMask activity).
In MetaMask, click this transaction → click "Speed Up" or "Cancel".
The wallet will automatically fill in a higher gas fee. Confirm it. The new transaction will use the same nonce to replace the original transaction.
After replacement succeeds, the original transaction will show Dropped & Replaced on Etherscan, and your account will return to normal.
Case B: Multiple transactions are stuck in a row (nonce=5, 6, and 7 are all Pending) Handle the lowest nonce first (5). After 5 is done, 6 and 7 will automatically start queuing, then handle them one by one.
Steps:
In MetaMask "Activity", find the transaction with nonce=5, and click "Speed Up" or "Cancel".
Submit a replacement transaction with a higher gas fee.
After nonce=5 is confirmed, the nonce=6 and nonce=7 transactions will automatically enter pending status.
If nonce=6 is still stuck after that, repeat the steps for nonce=6.
If nonce=5 is done but nonce=6 and 7 still do not move, simply click "Reset Account" in MetaMask (Settings → Advanced → Reset Account). This clears the local cache and does not affect funds.
High risk: Never skip the stuck lower nonce and directly handle a higher nonce. Before nonce=5 is confirmed, nonce=6 and nonce=7 transactions can never go on-chain, no matter how high their gas fees are. Handling a higher nonce first is just wasting money.
Completion standard:
The replacement transaction shows Success status on Etherscan.
The original Pending transaction status becomes Dropped & Replaced.
The wallet "Activity" list no longer has orange Pending marks.
Common failure reason: Why is the low-nonce transaction still stuck after I clicked Speed Up?
"I clicked Speed Up, and the wallet confirmed it, but Etherscan still shows Pending."
Possible reasons:
The accelerated transaction's gas fee is not high enough. The replacement transaction must be at least 10% higher than the original transaction's max fee and priority fee, otherwise nodes will reject the replacement. The wallet's automatic increase may not be enough. It is recommended to manually set it about 30% higher than the original transaction.
The network suddenly became congested. In the few seconds when you clicked Speed Up, gas fees spiked. You can speed up again or wait for the network to calm down.
Insufficient wallet balance. Speeding up or canceling consumes ETH as gas fee. If the balance is not enough, the operation will fail.
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FAQ
Q: If I do not want to spend more gas to speed up, can I just wait? A: Yes, but the cost is that all later transactions will be stuck until the original transaction is confirmed or dropped by the network (which can take hours to days). If you have urgent operations during this time, you can only wait.
Q: Will Reset Account lose money? A: No. It only clears MetaMask's local transaction queue cache and does not affect on-chain balances or assets. Any transaction already confirmed on-chain will still exist after reset. After reset, Pending transactions will disappear from the UI, but they are still Pending on-chain, so you need to check their status on Etherscan.
Q: Why can some wallets send multiple transactions at the same time without getting stuck? A: Because they manage nonces automatically in the background. For example, some institutional-grade wallets have a "parallel transaction wallet" feature that uses a backend system to track nonce and queue transactions automatically. Ordinary wallets do not have this feature, so you need to handle it manually.
