CME Blackout: Traders Cry Manipulation After 10-Hour Halt Freezes Markets
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) experienced a significant disruption on Friday, with a cooling failure at a major data center in Illinois forcing a roughly 10-hour shutdown. This incident froze markets in several regions, prompting accusations of manipulation from frustrated traders. The CME confirmed that trading was halted due to a cooling system malfunction at the CyrusOne-operated facility in Aurora, which has served as the backbone of CME’s Globex electronics markets for nearly two decades.
Due to a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers, our markets are currently halted. Support is working to resolve the issue in the short term and will notify customers with pre-open details as they become available.
— CME Group (@CMEGroup) November 28, 2025
The exchange restored full functionality at 1:30 p.m. UTC on Friday, but the disruption had already impacted Asia and Europe, where participants struggled with low liquidity after Thanksgiving. The incident has raised questions about the reliability of the CME’s systems and the potential for manipulation.
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Traders across asset classes, including stocks, currencies, commodities, energy, and crypto, reported being unable to close or adjust their positions during the outage. One stock trader, Timothy Bozman, publicly accused CME of allowing a “simple problem” to cripple the entire futures complex and questioned how all major markets could be crippled by a single point of failure.
Manipulation at its finest. How in actual sense could the entire Index Futures, FX Futures, Metal Futures, Energy Futures, Agriculture Futures markets and options stop due to server overheating? A simple problem could cause @CMEGroup to bring down the entire futures platform? pic.twitter.com/ZwvDJ4WImy
— Timothy Bozman (@MrAmazingBoz) November 28, 2025
Others went further, suggesting that the timing was “too opportune” as the stop came during the low-volume Asian session on Thanksgiving, where sudden price moves can occur with limited resistance. Some traders noted that silver futures were nearing a record high of around $54 just minutes before prices were frozen, further fueling speculation and frustration.
The outage was widespread, with the Globex platform handling the majority of CME volume. A previous report from Cryptonews said that crude oil and palm oil markets stopped moving during the shutdown, while crypto traders saw Bitcoin and Ethereum futures go completely offline.
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CyrusOne, which operates more than 55 data centers worldwide and is backed by KKR and BlackRock’s global infrastructure partners, confirmed the cooling malfunction. The Aurora facility is well-known among high-frequency trading firms that place their servers as close as possible to CME’s matching engines to save microseconds.
The exchange acknowledged that CME Direct, a platform used for some markets, was unavailable even after Globex reopened, showing the extent of the disruption. The incident lasted much longer than a similar CME outage in 2019 and was the latest reminder of how centralized infrastructure can pose systemic risk in electronic markets.
Source: Cryptonews
Analysts noted that Bitcoin is facing resistance near $95,000, but conquering this level could pave the way towards six-digit territory again. The blackout also comes at a time when CME is expanding its role in the digital assets space. In October, the exchange announced that it plans to convert its cryptocurrency futures and options to a full 24/7 trading cycle starting in early 2026, pending regulatory approval.
For more information, visit https://cryptonews.com/news/cme-blackout-traders-cry-manipulation-after-10-hour-halt-freezes-markets/
