Key Takeaways
- Cloudflare suffers a second major outage in under a month, impacting crypto.
- Dozens of major websites were affected.
- A fix has been deployed, but investigations continue.
Less than a month since its last major outage, Cloudflare has experienced another blackout, triggering widespread disruption across several cryptocurrency exchanges and the broader internet.
On Friday, Dec. 5, dozens of websites began to go offline, with thousands of users reporting disruption.
Crypto Exchanges Hit
Web3 news aggregator Wu Blockchain reported that “numerous cryptocurrency applications” were currently down due to Cloudflare falling.
Reports indicate that centralized exchanges, such as Coinbase and Kraken, were temporarily unavailable.
Jupiter, Raydium, and Meteora were also reported to be down.
The aggregator also reported that the “user interfaces of many DeFi protocols” have also experienced outages.
Wider Internet Disrupted
A large proportion of the internet’s most used sites rely on Cloudflare.
This recent outage has impacted dozens of websites, including X, Substack, and Canva.
Other websites affected by the outage even included DownDetector, the trusted site that people rush to in times exactly like this.
In response to the outage, one user on X wrote: “Another massive failure. How many more times can we take this?”
Fix Implemented
According to an official update from Cloudflare, the company has rolled out a fix and is now monitoring its effectiveness.
An internal investigation into the incident is still underway.
Early indications suggest the problem may be tied to the Cloudflare Dashboard and associated APIs, according to reports.
Experts Weigh In
Just under a month ago, experts warned CCN that the disruption wasn’t due to individual organisations collapsing one by one, but because a single layer they all rely on suddenly stopped responding.
Graeme Stewart, who leads public sector operations at cybersecurity firm Check Point, pointed out that “news sites, payments, public information pages and community services all froze, not because each organisation failed individually, but because a single layer they rely on stopped responding.”
Some analysts described the previous event as “a catastrophic disruption,” arguing that Cloudflare’s role as a go-to shield against DDoS attacks has inadvertently turned it into one of the internet’s most significant single points of failure.
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Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
