The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) suffered one of its most disruptive outages in years after a cooling failure at a major Illinois data center halted electronic trading for nearly 10 hours, freezing price discovery across major futures markets and sparking accusations of manipulation from frustrated traders worldwide.
CME confirmed the interruption was caused by a cooling system malfunction at the CyrusOne-operated facility in Aurora, Illinois — a critical hub that has hosted the Globex matching engines for almost two decades.
Full functionality was restored at 1:30 p.m. UTC on Friday, but the damage had already rippled across Asia and Europe, where markets were operating on thin post-Thanksgiving liquidity.
Traders Left Trapped in Positions During Asia Session
During the outage, traders across equities, currencies, commodities, energy, and crypto markets were unable to close, hedge, or adjust positions. Many described the experience as a “nightmare scenario”, especially given that it struck during the low-volume Asia session — a time when sudden moves can unfold rapidly.
One trader, Timothy Bozman, publicly criticized CME for allowing a “simple issue” to cripple the entire futures complex, questioning why such a massive system had a single point of failure.
Other market participants went further, suggesting the halt’s timing was “too convenient” given the exceptionally low liquidity. Social media debates intensified when traders noted that silver futures were approaching a record high near $54 moments before the freeze.
The outage affected all major Globex-based markets, including:
- Equity index futures
- Treasury and SOFR futures
- Crude oil and energy futures
- Agricultural contracts
- Palm oil markets (via linked regional platforms)
- Bitcoin and Ethereum futures
Multiple traders reported additional delays in Treasury and rate products even after the exchange reopened.
Some users on X (formerly Twitter) urged CME to cancel losses for trades impacted by the freeze, reflecting widespread anxiety among participants who were effectively immobilized during live market moves.
CME and CyrusOne Confirm Cooling Failure at Aurora Data Center
CyrusOne — which operates more than 55 data centers globally and is backed by KKR and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners — confirmed that a cooling malfunction triggered the technical failure.
The affected Aurora, Illinois facility is well-known as a hotspot for high-frequency trading firms whose servers sit just meters from CME’s matching engines to minimize latency.
Even after the main Globex system returned, CME Direct, a platform used for certain workflows, remained unavailable — highlighting the severity and multi-layered nature of the disruption.
The incident lasted significantly longer than a similar 2019 CME outage, reviving concerns about how centralized market infrastructure can pose systemic risk in the era of fully electronic trading.
CME has experienced other historic issues as well, including a 2014 software malfunction that temporarily halted trading in agricultural contracts.
Bitcoin Futures Rebound as Broader Markets Adjust
Despite the disruption, price action resumed once systems came back online.
- Bitcoin futures closed Wednesday at $90,355,
- reopened Friday at $90,940,
- and later climbed above $93,000, rebounding from a recent low of $80,522.
Analysts say BTC faces key resistance around $95,000 — a level that, if reclaimed, could reopen the path toward six-figure territory.
Outage Arrives as CME Prepares for 24/7 Crypto Trading in 2026
The blackout comes at a time when CME is expanding deeper into digital assets. In October, the exchange announced plans to transition its cryptocurrency futures and options to a full 24/7 trading cycle by early 2026, pending regulatory approval.
Under the proposal:
- Trading on Globex would run non-stop,
- except for a brief weekly maintenance window,
- and weekend activity would be assigned to the next business day for clearing.
CME cited increasing institutional demand for continuous risk management, especially since crypto markets never close.
The irony wasn’t lost on traders: as CME prepares to run around the clock, a single infrastructure failure managed to shut down the entire futures ecosystem for almost half a day.
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