Ethereum nonce: speed up or cancel a stuck transaction
Every Ethereum account numbers its transactions. That number is the nonce. Miners include nonce 7 only after nonce 6. If nonce 6 is sitting in the mempool with a fee nobody will pay, nonce 7 never leaves the wallet even if you paid a fortune on it.
Speed up and cancel in MetaMask are both replacements of the same nonce. They are not reverse buttons, and they do not exist once the original nonce is in a block.
What the nonce actually enforces
The nonce is sequential per sender address, not per token. A stuck ETH send blocks a later USDT send from the same account. A stuck send on Ethereum does not block a send on Base; those are different chains with different nonces.
This is why 'I already sent it again' is dangerous on Ethereum: the second attempt is nonce 7, waiting behind the first, and if you later speed up nonce 6 with a send to the same destination you can pay twice.
- ethereum.org: transactions — Primary Ethereum documentation for nonce, gas and why transactions are queued per account.
Speed up versus cancel
Both replacements must pay enough to displace the original in the mempool. If the original already confirmed, the replacement is rejected. That is success for speed up if the original was what you wanted, and failure for cancel.
| Wallet action | What it broadcasts | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Speed up | Same nonce, same destination, higher fee | You still want the original send to complete |
| Cancel | Same nonce, destination is yourself, tiny amount, higher fee | You want the original send not to land |
- MetaMask: speed up or cancel a pending transaction — Official wallet steps for replacing a nonce. Other EVM wallets use the same mechanism under different labels.
L2s and exchanges
A stuck send on Arbitrum does not affect Ethereum mainnet. An exchange waiting for 120 Arbitrum confirmations is not a nonce problem; the hash is already in a block. Do not cancel a confirmed deposit.
What you get, and what it costs
Free, always
The transaction check: network, asset, amount, both addresses, timestamp, on-chain status, confirmation count, and a copyable evidence message for support. No diagnosis.
£9.99, one-off
The diagnosis: the likely cause, recovery outlook, step-by-step instructions, the official support route, wording written for that case, and 72-hour monitoring. No subscription.
Questions
Can the receiving exchange cancel my stuck Ethereum send?
No. Only the sending key can replace the nonce. The destination has not received anything until a block includes it.
MetaMask says pending. Should I use TXLens?
If there is already a hash, the free check will show whether it is in a block. If it is not, the fix is a nonce replacement in the sending wallet, not an exchange recovery form.
Related
Platform requirements on this page were last reviewed 2026-08. They change without notice, which is why every diagnosis is phrased as a likely cause rather than a certainty.
TXLens is read-only. We only use your transaction ID and public blockchain data. We never ask for your private keys, seed phrase or exchange login.