How Long Does Ethereum Transaction Take

If you want to find out how long does Ethereum transaction take, you’re in the right place. After Bitcoin, Ethereum is the most popular cryptocurrency that has multiple use cases. This is why many institutions use it as one of their payment methods. However, ETH is also known for its large gas fees, which greatly impact its transaction time.

In this guide, we’ll talk about the average ETH transaction time and its pending issues.

How Long Does Ethereum Transaction Take?

The ETH transfer time usually ranges from 1 to 5 minutes. This is much faster than BTC, whose transaction time ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Moreover, the number of Ethereum transactions per second is much higher than the number of BTC transactions per second — 12-15 vs. 7 TPS.

On average, ETH transactions are confirmed within 16 seconds. According to ETH’s whitepaper, seven confirmations are enough to validate a transaction. However, crypto exchanges usually require between 20 and 30 confirmations. This means that the ETH confirmation time will vary depending on the source used.

With that in mind, the longest Ethereum transaction time on crypto exchanges will usually amount to one hour. The main factors that will affect the speed of transactions include gas fees and network congestion.

Here’s how long ETH transactions take on some of the best crypto exchanges:

Why Is My Ethereum Transaction Taking So Long?

Now that you know how long does Ethereum transaction take, here’s what can slow down the process:

Ethereum Transfer Fee

Ethereum transactions can get stuck if you pay a low gas fee. Generally, transactions with higher fees are processed sooner by validators. At the time of writing, the average gas fee for ETH is 51.68 Gwei.

Network Congestion

High demand can lead to network congestion, which means that transactions will take longer to process. The lack of native sharding and a large number of DeFi apps can also lead to network congestion. In most cases, all transactions will go through once the network congestion is reduced.

Wrong Transaction Parameters

Incorrect addresses or insufficient account balance may prevent the transaction from being processed. Node problems can also stop the validation process.

Smart Contract Conditions

If the terms and conditions of the smart contract are not met, the transaction will not be executed.

How Long Does ERC-20 Transfer Take?

The term ERC-20 transfer refers to all ERC-20 tokens moved from one account to another on the ETH blockchain. In a technical sense, ERC-20 transfers are operations within the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) responsible for transferring tokens using the ERC-20 standard. The token contract’s transfer function manages these operations and marks the change in ownership.

With that in mind, USDT transfers that use the ERC-20 network usually last 1–10 minutes. However, if the network is congested, transfers may take up to 30 minutes. Withdrawals are usually processed within two hours.

How to Solve Pending Transactions on Ethereum

You can try to solve pending transactions on Ethereum in the following way:

Nonce Assignment

Visit Etherscan and use the search bar to find your transaction. Once you find it, go to the transaction details to see its nonce. Open your ETH wallet, create a new transaction, and set the amount to 0 ETH. The nonce on the new transaction should have the same value as the initial transaction. Set a higher fee and wait for confirmation. Once the transaction is confirmed, your initial transaction should be rejected due to nonce issues.

Replace-by-Fee Method

The Replace-by-Fee (RBF) method involves replacing an unconfirmed transaction with a new one with a higher fee, which makes it more attractive to validators. Trezor and Ledger are the best Ethereum wallets that support this option.

Child-Pays-For-Parent (CPFP) Method

This method also refers to creating a new transaction with higher fees. However, the latest transaction will use funds from the unconfirmed transaction. The validators will then calculate the total fee for both transactions. If the fee for the new transaction is high enough, they will confirm the pending transaction.

Conclusion

How long does Ethereum transaction take? Between 1 and 5 minutes. ETH can process between 12 and 15 transactions per second. Each transaction will be confirmed within 16 seconds. However, a minimum of seven confirmations are required for the transaction to be validated. Keep in mind that crypto exchanges may require 20 to 30 confirmations. This means that the transaction time could extend to 30 minutes or even one hour.

ETH transactions can get stuck in pending mode if the network is congested and if the gas fee is low.

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