The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, halted trading for about 10 hours Thursday through Friday, prompting an outcry from traders before service was restored.
Trading was halted due to “cooling issues” at the CyrusOne data center in Illinois, US, according to announcement from CME. Trading was fully restored and trading for all markets resumed at 13:30 UTC on Friday, CME said in update.
Meanwhile, traders expressed their dismay at the critical glitch, which locked some users out of their positions, prevented others from placing new trades and halted price discovery.
Stock trader Timothy Bozman accused the CME of market manipulation and asked how “a simple problem could bring down CME’s entire platform for the future?”
“Very convenient that this is happening in Asia on Thanksgiving, when volume is already low. Sounds like you are trying to quickly manipulate the markets in a certain direction,” another X user he said.
The inconvenience to retailers continued even after the issue was resolved, with many saying that trading was halted minutes before silver futures hit an all-time high of $54, fueling further speculation.
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Bitcoin futures continue to rise after market halt
The CME does not release regular trading data for Thanksgiving, which this year was on a Thursday. However, bitcoin futures closed at $90,355 on Wednesday and opened at $90,940 on Friday, according to data from TradingView.
Bitcoin futures prices continued to rise on Friday, climbing above $93,000 at the time of writing, while BTC is recovering from a local low of $80,522.
Analysts say that BTC is facing resistance at $95,000, but if the cryptocurrency can reclaim $95,000 as support, it could return to the $100,000 area.
The recent drop to just over $80,000 marked the market’s lowest point, according to investor and analyst Arthur Hayes, who he said that easing liquidity conditions will lift BTC to higher levels in 2026, warning that another near-term decline could occur in the meantime.
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