CME Blackout: Traders Cry “Manipulation” After 10-Hour Halt Freezes Markets
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange confronted certainly one of its most disruptive buying and selling incidents in years after a cooling failure at a serious Illinois information middle compelled a halt that stretched for roughly 10 hours, freezing markets throughout a number of areas and igniting accusations of manipulation from pissed off merchants.
CME confirmed that buying and selling stopped due to a cooling system malfunction on the CyrusOne-operated facility in Aurora, a website that has served because the spine of CME’s Globex digital markets for practically twenty years.
The alternate restored full performance at 1:30 p.m. UTC on Friday, however the interruption had already rippled via Asia and Europe, the place contributors had been coping with skinny post-Thanksgiving liquidity.
CME Outage on Thin Thanksgiving Liquidity Sparks Questions From Traders
During the outage, merchants throughout asset lessons—equities, currencies, commodities, power, and crypto—reported being unable to shut or alter positions, a situation that a number of described as a “nightmare.”
One inventory dealer, Timothy Bozman, publicly accused CME of permitting a “easy subject” to cripple your complete futures complicated, questioning how all main markets might be taken offline by a single level of failure.
Others went additional, suggesting that the timing was “too handy,” on condition that the halt arrived through the low-volume Asia session on Thanksgiving, when sudden worth strikes can unfold with restricted resistance.
Some merchants pointed out that silver futures had been approaching a file high close to $54 simply minutes earlier than costs froze, including gasoline to the hypothesis and frustration.
The outage was widespread as a result of the Globex platform handles nearly all of CME’s quantity.
An earlier cryptonews report stated that crude and palm oil markets stopped transferring through the halt, whereas crypto merchants noticed Bitcoin and Ethereum futures go offline solely.
The timing added complexity for corporations making ready month-end rolls, notably these needing to regulate Treasury futures or SOFR-linked positions
Several merchants later famous that even after markets reopened, delays continued in Treasury futures and sure charge merchandise.
Trading exercise had already been muted because of the U.S. Thanksgiving vacation, however the outage additional slowed an already quiet session.
One person on X publicly urged CME to cancel losses for trades affected through the freeze, reflecting the broader nervousness of merchants locked into transferring markets with no capacity to behave.
CME Suffers Major Outage as It Prepares Shift to 24/7 Crypto Trading in 2026
CyrusOne, which operates greater than 55 information facilities globally and is backed by KKR and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, confirmed the cooling malfunction.
The Aurora facility is well-known amongst high-frequency buying and selling corporations that place servers as bodily shut as attainable to CME’s matching engines to shave off microseconds.
The alternate acknowledged that CME Direct, a platform used for some markets, remained unavailable even after Globex reopened, displaying the extent of the disruption.
The incident lasted far longer than the same 2019 CME outage, and it was the most recent reminder of how centralized infrastructure can pose systemic threat in digital markets.
CME has confronted technical points prior to now, together with a 2014 outage triggered by a software program malfunction affecting agricultural contracts.
Despite the friction, markets resumed and continued adjusting to broader worth actions.
Bitcoin futures, which closed on Wednesday at $90,355 earlier than the vacation, reopened at $90,940 on Friday and pushed above $93,000 later within the session as BTC rebounded from its current low of round $80,522.
Analysts famous that Bitcoin faces resistance close to $95,000, however reclaiming that degree may reopen the trail towards six-figure territory.
The blackout additionally comes at a second when CME is increasing its position within the digital asset sector. In October, the exchange said it plans to move its cryptocurrency futures and options right into a full 24/7 buying and selling cycle beginning in early 2026, topic to regulatory approval.
The agency cited quickly rising demand for steady threat administration in crypto markets, which by no means shut.
CME mentioned buying and selling will run nonstop on Globex, except for a quick weekly upkeep window, and weekend transactions can be assigned to the following enterprise day for clearing and settlement.
The put up CME Blackout: Traders Cry “Manipulation” After 10-Hour Halt Freezes Markets appeared first on Cryptonews.
