Dropped and Replaced Transaction in MetaMask: What It Means

"Dropped and replaced" means a second transaction using the same nonce paid a higher fee, won the slot, and pushed the first one out. It is normally good news: the status appears exactly when a Speed Up or a Cancel worked. The original never happened, nothing was charged for it, and the replacement is the one that counts. Etherscan shows the same thing, which is why the wording turns up in both places.

Why one transaction can replace another

Every transaction you send carries a position number, and Ethereum only ever accepts one transaction per number. Two candidates for number 61 are like two people holding a ticket for the same seat: the network keeps whichever pays more and drops the other. That is the whole mechanism behind the Speed Up and Cancel buttons - neither edits your original, both send a fresh one at the same number with a bigger fee.

When you did not press anything

Sometimes the status appears without you doing anything, and there are two harmless explanations. MetaMask may have quietly resubmitted your transaction at a higher fee, or your own wallet sent something else while the first was still waiting. There is also a case worth knowing about: if you approved a transaction through a website you were not sure about, a replacement you did not authorise is a reason to move your funds to a fresh wallet and stop using that address.

The one time it costs you

A Cancel is itself a real transaction - usually 0 ETH sent to yourself - so you pay gas for it even though nothing moved. That is the price of stopping the original, and it is almost always worth it. What is not worth it is repeatedly bumping the fee on a swap on Uniswap while the price moves: each bump costs more, and the trade may no longer be one you want by the time it lands.

If the wallet still lists the dropped version days later, clear the activity data and it will disappear - the chain already forgot it. To send a replacement by hand rather than with the buttons, see modifying a pending transaction, and customising the nonce shows where the number comes from.