CME Group Faces 10-Hour Trading Halt Across Markets Following CyrusOne Data Center Outage

Last Friday, CME Group, the world’s second-largest derivatives exchange, faced a prolonged trading halt spanning over 10 hours across multiple markets due to a data center outage. The disruption underscores the fragility of market infrastructure in crypto and derivatives spaces.

A CyrusOne spokesperson confirmed the outage stemmed from human error at the Aurora, Illinois facility, where on-site staff and contractors failed to drain the cooling tower ahead of cold weather, triggering ice formation and an overpressure that compromised equipment.

CME said initial fixes by the data center aggravated the fault, accelerating cooling-unit failures. The episode underscores operational risk due to reliance on a single site for global market access.

The Aurora facility was originally owned by CME and sold to CyrusOne in 2016 under a 15-year leaseback; CME said it remains acutely aware of the broad impact on its global customers.