A pending BaseSwap transaction has been broadcast but has no confirmed receipt yet; one earlier transaction with the same wallet can hold up every later nonce. Before trying the swap again, find out whether it is still waiting, was replaced, or executed and reverted. If you also need the broader choice between trading and supplying liquidity, which BaseSwap option fits your goal covers that decision; this article focuses on diagnosing a transaction that did not finish.
A pending label means there is no confirmed receipt yet
A pending transaction is a request waiting to be included in a Base block. A wallet may show this status after you sign and submit a swap, but the label alone does not tell you whether the transaction reached the network or what is delaying it.
Use the transaction hash to check its record on BaseScan. If the explorer shows a pending transaction without a receipt, it has not completed onchain. If there is no record, the wallet may not have broadcast it successfully, or the explorer may not have indexed it yet; check the wallet’s transaction details before submitting another swap.
While a swap is pending, its token exchange has not completed. Avoid signing a second swap on the assumption that the first one disappeared: if both transactions eventually execute, you could make two trades.
The nonce shows whether an earlier transaction is holding it up
Each transaction from a wallet has a sequential number called a nonce. The network processes transactions from the same account in nonce order, so a pending transaction can block later ones even when those later transactions are unrelated to the swap.
For example, suppose nonce 41 is a pending token approval and nonce 42 is your swap. The swap cannot be processed before the approval transaction at 41 is resolved. If the approval confirms, the swap may then proceed; if you replace or cancel nonce 41, nonce 42 can become eligible afterward.
Compare the pending transaction’s nonce with the account’s confirmed activity and other pending transactions. If the swap is the oldest pending transaction, its own fee bid, network conditions, or contract execution may be the issue. If an older transaction is waiting first, focus on resolving that one rather than repeatedly submitting the swap.
A confirmed failed transaction reverted during execution
A failed transaction with a block and receipt was included onchain, but its contract call did not complete successfully. The swap’s token changes are rolled back, while the transaction still consumes gas because the network had to process it.
For a decentralized exchange swap, one common cause is the minimum output condition. The swap is submitted with a quoted output and a minimum amount the user will accept; if the price moves and execution would deliver less than that minimum, the contract reverts instead of completing a worse trade.
For an illustrative example, a quoted output of 100 tokens with 0.5% slippage tolerance sets a minimum of 99.5 tokens. If the available output falls to 99.4 before execution, the swap reverts. A smaller trade, a changed market price, or a refreshed quote may change the result, but lowering the minimum also means accepting more price movement.
Other possible causes include insufficient token allowance, insufficient balance for the trade or gas, and a token contract rejecting the transfer. Check the receipt or revert details where available; the error can narrow down what to correct before trying again.
Choose the next action from the transaction status
If there is no confirmed receipt, check whether the transaction is still pending and whether an earlier nonce is blocking it. If your wallet supports replacing or speeding up a pending transaction, it generally does this by resubmitting the same nonce with a higher fee bid; wallets set their own replacement rules, so the required increase varies.
A cancellation is also a replacement transaction using the pending nonce, not a way to erase a transaction that has already been confirmed. If the original wins the race and confirms first, the cancellation cannot undo it. Check the final receipt before deciding whether to make a new swap.
If the transaction has a failed receipt, its nonce is already consumed. Fix the cause shown in the receipt, then submit a fresh transaction; increasing the fee on the failed transaction will not make that execution succeed. If it succeeded, verify the token balances and receipt before deciding that anything needs to be repeated.
In practice, I check three things in order: whether a receipt exists, whether an older nonce is pending, and what the receipt says if execution failed. That sequence distinguishes a delay from a reverted swap and helps avoid duplicate trades or repeated failures.
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