0

Several days ago I sent a transcaction via MetaMask, to a different account of mine, with a gas fee of 30 gwei. It's still pending due to a fee being too low. A transaction contains all Eth in an account. A day later I pressed "cancel", the button then disappeared but nothing changed.

My balance is still the same.

I want to either cancel it or have it proceed. I can't increase gas fee because the amount sent is precisely "all of Eth in that account - 30 gwei".

The 1st transaction has the nonce 9. I tried to send 2 other transactions with the nonce 8, from the same account and to the same other destination account of mine, but they both failed. Merely "failed". Reason - no idea, and there was no error message anywhere.

How to make it proceed or cancel? Or should I let it be pending because my balance still remains the same? Can I use the same account to send Eth to yet other addresses with no issue?

And also, why did the 2 other transactions with the nonce 8 failed?

2 Answers 2

2

If your current account nonce is 9, all the future transactions sent with nonce < 9 will be automatically rejected by the network. Transactions with nonce > 9 will be kept, "set apart" by the miners and exploited once the nonce gap is completed.

To solve your problem you have to ensure a transaction with nonce = 9 get mined. You can either wait for the gas price to go down or send a new transaction with the same nonce and a higher gas price. Metamask allows you to do this in several ways :

  • There is a button "speed up" in the details of the pending transaction. By clicking on it, Metamask will re-submit the transaction with a much higher gas price.
  • Metamask allows to send transactions with custom nonce. You could therefore send a transaction with the same nonce used for the pending one and allocate higher fees to match the current average gas price (see here https://ethgasstation.info/).

For both options you'll need a small amount of ETH in your wallet to pay the fees.

You can find more informations in this Metamask tuto : https://metamask.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015489251-How-to-Speed-Up-or-Cancel-a-Pending-Transaction.

6
  • Is sending a new transaction with a) higher gas price b) same nonce ... the only way? Except waiting. Can an address of the receiver differ in such transactions?
    – michika
    Jan 24, 2021 at 16:32
  • Why will transactions with lower nonce be rejected?
    – michika
    Jan 24, 2021 at 16:34
  • Is sending a new transaction with a) higher gas price b) same nonce ... the only way? Except waiting. Yes. And you can change the transaction parameters (except the nonce) such as the recipient address or the data.
    – clement
    Jan 24, 2021 at 18:13
  • Why will transactions with lower nonce be rejected? This is a protocol rule to prevent replay attacks, more info here : ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/27432/….
    – clement
    Jan 24, 2021 at 18:16
  • then for what cases does MetaMask allow to specify a custom nonce?
    – michika
    Jan 24, 2021 at 20:50
0

Not all transactions can cancel or accelerate by metamask. I have a pending transaction "APROBE USE CRYPO" in nonce 0 cannot replace or accelerate.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.