The short version is that a seemingly large number of people are willing to pay out of this world fees to trade on a decentralized, uncensorable currency exchan

The short version is that a seemingly large number of people are willing to pay out of this world fees to trade on a decentralized, uncensorable currency exchange. This is consuming the entire chains resources at the moment. The good news is that Uniswap (the top gas guzzler) is trying to move to L2 within 90 days. That will allow cheap/instant trades and L1 fees/usage will only occur when depositing or withdrawing. This should free up a lot of network capacity, and the high fees incentivize the devs to hurry up.