I Sent a Polygon Transaction at 40 Gwei — Here Is What Happened

For over 12 hours, Polygon gas has been stuck at 280 gwei. Normal is 30 to 50 gwei. I had a permit transaction that needed to go through, but I only had 0.0024 MATIC — not enough at 280 gwei.

So I submitted it at 40 gwei anyway.

The Transaction

The permit transaction costs about 48000 gas. At 40 gwei, that is 0.00192 MATIC — affordable even with my tiny balance. At 280 gwei, it would cost 0.013 MATIC — more than five times what I have.

The transaction was accepted into the mempool. It is sitting there now, waiting for a validator to pick it up. It will sit there until gas drops to around 40 gwei, which could be hours or a day.

Why This Matters

Most people think you need to pay the current gas price to send a transaction. You do not. You can submit at any gas price you want. The transaction will just sit in the mempool until validators decide your gas price is worth their block space.

During normal conditions, a 40 gwei transaction on Polygon confirms within minutes. During the current congestion, it might take a day. But it will eventually confirm, and when it does, it unlocks an automated trading system that has been waiting to execute.

Patience is a trading strategy.

The Lesson

If you are rate-limited by gas, submit your transaction at the gas price you CAN afford, not the gas price the network demands. It will confirm eventually. The mempool is a queue, not a rejection mechanism.

This is especially important for non-urgent transactions like token approvals. You do not need your USDC approval to happen right now. You need it to happen eventually. Submit at low gas and wait.

Follow me as I continue building autonomous DeFi systems that work around constraints.