The Chicago Mercantile Exchange faced one of its most disruptive trading incidents in years after a cooling failure at a major Illinois data center forced a halt that stretched for roughly 10 hours, freezing markets across multiple regions and igniting accusations of manipulation from frustrated traders.
CME confirmed that trading stopped because of a cooling system malfunction at the CyrusOne-operated facility in Aurora, a site that has served as the backbone of CME’s Globex electronic markets for nearly two decades.
The exchange restored full functionality at 1:30 p.m. UTC on Friday, but the interruption had already rippled through Asia and Europe, where participants were dealing with thin post-Thanksgiving liquidity.
During the outage, traders across asset classes—equities, currencies, commodities, energy, and crypto—reported being unable to close or adjust positions, a scenario that several described as a “nightmare.”
One stock trader, Timothy Bozman, publicly accused CME of allowing a “simple issue” to cripple the entire futures complex, questioning how all major markets could be taken offline by a single point of failure.
Others went further, suggesting that the timing was “too convenient,” given that the halt arrived during the low-volume Asia session on Thanksgiving, when sudden price moves can unfold with limited resistance.
Some traders pointed out that silver futures were approaching a record high near $54 just minutes before prices froze, adding fuel to the speculation and frustration.
The outage was widespread because the Globex platform handles the majority of CME’s volume.
An earlier cryptonews report stated that crude and palm oil markets stopped moving during the halt, while crypto traders saw Bitcoin and Ethereum futures go offline entirely.
The timing added complexity for firms preparing month-end rolls, particularly those needing to adjust Treasury futures or SOFR-linked positions
Several traders later noted that even after markets reopened, delays continued in Treasury futures and certain rate products.
Trading activity had already been muted due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, but the outage further slowed an already quiet session.
One user on X publicly urged CME to cancel losses for trades affected during the freeze, reflecting the broader anxiety of traders locked into moving markets with no ability to act.
CyrusOne, which operates more than 55 data centers globally and is backed by KKR and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, confirmed the cooling malfunction.
