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How do I accelerate a stuck Bitcoin, Ethereum, or ERC20 transaction?
How do I accelerate a stuck Bitcoin, Ethereum, or ERC20 transaction?

Learn how you can accelerate a stuck Bitcoin, Ethereum, or ERC20 transaction.

Updated over a week ago

Everything you need to know about accelerating stuck Bitcoin, Ethereum, and ERC20 transactions.

Need a crypto wallet that gives you full control of your assets? You can download Exodus here.


In this article:


Which networks support accelerating stuck transactions?

Bitcoin

If your Bitcoin transaction is stuck pending with a low fee, you can accelerate it from Exodus Mobile and Desktop. Accelerating is paying a higher fee, incentivizing miners to include your transaction in a block sooner.

If the stuck transaction is sent with RBF enabled, you can accelerate it by replacing it with a new transaction with a higher transaction fee.

To learn how to enable RBF and set custom fees when sending Bitcoin (BTC), visit the article: How do I set custom Bitcoin fees and enable RBF?

If the stuck transaction has RBF disabled, then you might be able to accelerate by creating a CPFP transaction. To learn more about CPFP, visit: What is a Child-Pays-For-Parent (CPFP) transaction?

With the accelerate button in Exodus Mobile and Desktop, you can accelerate with RBF or CPFP.

Ethereum

If your Ethereum or ERC20 transaction gets stuck pending with a low fee, you can accelerate it by replacing the stuck transaction with a transaction with a higher transaction fee.

For more information on how to set a custom fee and accelerate an Ethereum transaction, visit: How do I set Ethereum and ERC20 custom transaction fees?


What can I do if my Bitcoin transaction is stuck?

If you set your custom fee too low or there is a sudden spike in network fees, your transaction might get stuck pending.

If this happens, you can accelerate the transaction with either replace-by-fee (RBF) or a child-pays-for-parent (CPFP) transaction.

In Exodus Mobile and Desktop, you can accelerate with RBF or CPFP with the accelerate button.

You'll need some Bitcoin (BTC) in your wallet to pay the extra transaction fee. Accelerating a transaction can be more expensive than a regular transaction fee.

Currently, the ability to accelerate a BTC transaction is available in Mobile and Desktop.


What is replace-by-fee (RBF)?

Replace-by-fee, or RBF, means replacing one version of an unconfirmed transaction with a new version that pays a higher fee.

As a result of increasing the fee, your transaction will become more attractive to the miners and will have a higher chance of confirming faster.

While there is no guarantee that your transaction will be included in the next block, replacing a transaction with a higher fee using RBF allows you to increase these chances.

RBF acceleration is only possible if the same address that sent the funds has BTC to pay the extra transaction fee and if the transaction was sent with RBF enabled. RBF is automatically enabled if the transaction was sent with a custom fee. For more information, see: How do I set custom Bitcoin fees and enable RBF?

Another thing to remember is that when RBF is enabled for Bitcoin, it allows your BTC transactions to be batched together when sending. This means that if you send two or more Bitcoin transactions in a row, the transactions will be automatically combined into the same transaction. This allows you to save on fees.

To learn more about this, visit: What is a batched transaction?


What is a Child-Pays-For-Parent (CPFP) transaction?

Child-Pays-For-Parent (CPFP) is a way to accelerate a transaction by creating a new transaction with a high fee that spends unconfirmed funds from the transaction that is stuck pending.

Miners will calculate the overall fee for both transactions, If the fee for the new transaction is high enough, the miners will confirm the stuck transaction to get to the transaction sent with high fees, as that transaction is more profitable for the miners. This will confirm the stuck transaction faster.

For more information, see: What is a Child-Pays-For-Parent (CPFP) transaction?

When accelerating with CPFP, your wallet creates a CPFP transaction by spending unconfirmed funds from a change address and creating a sent-to-self transaction with a high fee to accelerate the pending transaction.

Once confirmed, you will see two complete transactions, the previously stuck transaction and the new sent-to-self transaction sent with a high fee.

CPFP acceleration is only possible if the wallet that sent the funds has enough BTC to accelerate and if the stuck transaction includes a change address output: What are change addresses?


How do I accelerate a stuck Bitcoin transaction?

You can use the accelerate feature to accelerate your pending transaction by paying a higher fee.

Depending on how it was sent, the accelerate feature will either use RBF or CPFP to speed up your transaction.

Mobile

You'll need some Bitcoin (BTC) in your wallet to pay the extra transaction fee. Accelerating a transaction can be more expensive than a regular transaction fee.

Currently, the ability to accelerate a BTC transaction is available in Mobile and Desktop.

  1. Open your Bitcoin wallet and tap on the transaction that is stuck pending.

  2. a) You'll see the amount of BTC needed to accelerate your transaction. To proceed, b) tap Accelerate.

  3. To confirm, tap Accelerate.

Your transaction should be confirmed shortly.


Desktop

You'll need some Bitcoin (BTC) in your wallet to pay the extra transaction fee. Accelerating a transaction can be more expensive than a regular transaction fee.

Currently, the ability to accelerate a BTC transaction is available in Mobile and Desktop.

  1. Open your Bitcoin wallet and click the arrow next to the transaction that is stuck pending.

  2. Click Accelerate.


  3. You will be taken to a confirmation screen. Click Accelerate.

Your transaction should be confirmed shortly.


Web3 Wallet

Currently, it's not possible to accelerate a Bitcoin transaction from Exodus Web3 Wallet.

You will need to sync Web3 Wallet to Exodus Mobile or Exodus Desktop by following this guide:

Then, you can follow the Desktop or Mobile instructions to accelerate a transaction.


How do I accelerate a stuck Ethereum or ERC20 token transaction?

If you set your custom fee too low, your transaction might get stuck pending. If this happens, Exodus has a feature to accelerate your pending transaction by replacing the pending transaction with a transaction that pays a higher fee.

Mobile

You'll need some Ethereum (ETH) in your wallet to pay the extra transaction fee. Accelerating a transaction can be more expensive than a regular transaction fee.

  1. In your Ethereum or ERC20 token wallet, tap on the transaction that is stuck pending.

  2. Tap Accelerate.

  3. You'll see the amount of ETH needed to accelerate your transaction. To proceed, tap Confirm.

Your transaction should be confirmed shortly.


Desktop

You'll need some Ethereum (ETH) in your wallet to pay the extra transaction fee. Accelerating a transaction can be more expensive than a regular transaction fee.

  1. In your Ethereum (ETH) or ERC20 token wallet, click on the transaction that is stuck pending.

  2. You'll pay a higher transaction fee to resend your stuck transaction, which will be deducted from your ETH balance as soon as you click Accelerate. If you would like to proceed, click Accelerate.

Your transaction should be confirmed shortly.


Web3 Wallet

You'll need some Ethereum (ETH) in your wallet to pay the extra transaction fee. Accelerating a transaction can be more expensive than a regular transaction fee.

  1. In your Ethereum (ETH) or ERC20 token wallet, click on the transaction that is stuck pending.

  2. Click Accelerate.

  3. You'll see the amount of ETH needed to accelerate your transaction. To proceed, click Confirm.

Your transaction should be confirmed shortly.

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