Bitcoin needs to be confirmed
When you send Bitcoin, the transaction isn’t instantly final. It must first be picked up by miners and added to a new block on the blockchain. This process is called confirmation — and it can take time.
Fee too low?
If your fee is too low, miners may ignore your transaction in favor of others with higher fees. Your transaction will remain unconfirmed in the mempool (the waiting area) until it is eventually processed — or dropped.
Network congestion
When many people are using the Bitcoin network at the same time, competition for space in the next block increases. That can slow things down, especially if you didn’t set a high fee.
How to avoid delays
Use a wallet that suggests a reasonable fee based on network activity. Some wallets also offer “replace-by-fee” or “accelerate” features to resend your transaction with a higher fee.
