How Does a Network’s Congestion Level Affect the Block Confirmation Time?

High network congestion significantly increases the block confirmation time for transactions with standard fees. When the network is congested, the mempool fills up with pending transactions.

Validators can only include a limited number of transactions per block (based on the gas limit). This forces users to engage in a gas auction, and transactions with lower fees must wait longer, sometimes through multiple blocks, for confirmation, thus increasing the total confirmation time.