A cooling system failure at a CyrusOne data center in Illinois halted 90% of global derivatives trading at 03:00 GMT on November 28, 2025. The incident caused the CME Group's systems to shut down, affecting markets from Chicago to Kuala Lumpur. The outage, not caused by a cyberattack, revealed a critical vulnerability in financial infrastructure, as physical cooling capacity became the weak link.
The CME Group, which handles approximately 30 million contracts daily, confirmed the halt across its Globex platform, impacting Treasury futures, energy, and agricultural markets. The sudden disruption led to sharp movements in precious metals, with gold experiencing two $40 drops before recovering, and silver falling about $1. This event highlighted the growing challenge of managing thermodynamic limits in financial systems, as data centers face increasing computational demands.
The incident has raised concerns about systemic risk and the need for improved infrastructure resilience. Critics argue that the current market infrastructure may not be suitable for modern demands, as centralized servers face physical constraints. The event underscores the importance of adapting financial systems to prevent future disruptions, especially as global price discovery relies heavily on centralized data centers.
Cooling System Failure Halts 90% of Global Derivatives Trading
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