If you are here reading this article, you are probably having a bit of a head scratching moment and wondering as to why your Bitcoin Deposit to your Coinbase Account, or maybe other similar Crypto Wallet. After all you would be forgiven for the thoughts and bewilderment as you will be thinking that Bitcoin Transactions are supposed to be instant - right?

Unfortunately it seems that the days of speedy Bitcoin transactions are quickly becoming a thing of the past - and after this years (2020) halving it does seem that miners are jumping at the highest mining fees first... You would if you are a miner that just got your income hit by halving. 

Let's look at this from the point of your transaction... You deposited your Bitcoin to Coinbase, but you have been on pending for an hour already - this is not a great position to be in if you need to make an urgent transaction - the general approach to depositing in 2020 will come with a change in attitude to said deposits.

Unless you have no other way of planning ahead due to a deposit from a new transaction from another wallet or online income stream such as a faucet or cloud mine... Then you might just have to put up with the wait - you do need to be planning at least 12 to 24'hours ahead if you are making purchases... And don't forget the other party about to receive your Bitcoin payment is going to be in the same place you are now, once your transaction is sent to said third party.

Bitcoin transactions move in blocks on the blockchain - hence the name blockchain for noobs - these blocks are roughly every ten minutes - but with the great many thousands of transactions being made during those ten minutes, you will just have to wait it out for a miner to pick up on your transaction and mine it into an actual Bitcoin payment to your wallet - it can take a few hours and in some cases you might find the wait longer. 

This is why planning ahead if you are able to is beneficial - you could go and stick an extra few thousand satoshi on the payable mining fee if you are able to do so - this could attract a quicker transaction along the chain - but that is not gauranteed.

In short, you are lucky these days if a Bitcoin BTC transaction is as quick as exchanging cash at a real world store cashier point. But do not worry, unless something has gone drastically wrong with your BTC transaction - pending will become available hopefully within an hour or two. Feel lucky if it is any quicker.