When network congestion rises, your original transaction might get stuck indefinitely if the fee is too low. Fee bumping solves this by revising the transaction with a higher fee or creating a child transaction that compensates for the parent’s insufficient fee. RBF allows you to replace the original unconfirmed transaction, while CPFP has a dependent transaction pay extra to cover its parent’s fee shortfall.

Both methods let you rescue a stuck transaction, but not all wallets or nodes support RBF. CPFP can be used even if the original transaction isn’t RBF-enabled—assuming you control the unconfirmed output’s address. Fee bumping has become standard practice, especially during mempool spikes, ensuring time-sensitive transactions confirm promptly.