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Less than three weeks after its previous major blackout, Cloudflare experienced another outage on December 5, 2025.
The disruption affected approximately 20% of internet traffic and knocked offline thousands of websites, including major cryptocurrency exchanges and DeFi protocols.
The outage lasted roughly 40 minutes from 08:47 GMT to 09:13 GMT. Crypto news outlets reported that centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken became temporarily unavailable. DeFi platforms Jupiter, Raydium, and Meteora also went dark during the incident.
Cloudflare Outage Traced to React Security Vulnerability Response
The December 5 Cloudflare failure stemmed from modifications to the company’s Web Application Firewall rules.
The changes aimed to address CVE-2025-55182, a critical remote code execution vulnerability discovered in React Server Components on December 2.
The vulnerability affected React versions 19.0, 19.1, and 19.2, along with Next.js versions 15 through 16. Attackers could execute arbitrary code on servers through malformed HTTP POST requests exploiting the flaw.
Cloudflare deployed new WAF rules across its network on December 2 to block exploitation attempts.
“Our team implemented the adjustment to address the industry-wide vulnerability that was revealed earlier this week in React Server Components,” Cloudflare stated.
The firewall modifications inadvertently caused the blackout affecting crypto platforms and other websites.
Major Crypto Exchanges Went Offline
Crypto exchange Coinbase experienced service disruptions during the outage. Users attempting to access the platform found the exchange temporarily unavailable.
Crypto news, amidst the downtime, also stated that Kraken faced access problems during the 40-minute window. Trading activities across both platforms were hampered.
DeFi protocols suffered similar disruptions. Jupiter, Raydium, and Meteora all reported downtime during the Cloudflare blackout. Aggregators noted that user interfaces of many DeFi protocols experienced outages.
The crypto sector has now faced two major infrastructure disruptions in less than a month. The November 18 Cloudflare outage similarly impacted cryptocurrency platforms. An earlier AWS outage also affected Coinbase and other crypto services.
Crypto News Highlights Single Point of Failure Concerns
The repeated disruptions have raised questions about the crypto ecosystem’s dependence on centralized infrastructure providers. Some analysts described the previous outage as “a catastrophic disruption.”
Cloudflare’s role as a primary defense against DDoS attacks has made it one of the internet’s most important single points of failure. The company’s services protect a large proportion of the web’s most visited sites.
The December 5 incident affected platforms beyond crypto. X, Substack, and Canva all went offline during the blackout. Even DownDetector, the service people use to check for outages, became unavailable.
AI services like Claude AI by Anthropic experienced downtime. Communication platforms including Zoom and LinkedIn went dark. Consumer applications like DoorDash, Crunchyroll, and Cash App also faced disruptions.
There’s also a new Polymarket bet on the Cloudflare outage before 2025.
Government and Financial Websites Affected by Cloudflare Failure
The outage extended to government infrastructure across multiple countries. Norwegian and Swedish government websites experienced disruptions during the incident.
Norway’s central bank, sovereign wealth fund, and tax authority all went offline. Critical banking and financial services in both countries experienced service interruptions.
Shopify and multiple banking websites faced disruptions. Financial service providers across sectors found their platforms temporarily inaccessible to users.
Downdetector reports peaked at nearly 2,000 during the outage’s height. The number declined to approximately 120 by 6:00 AM ET, indicating a rapid recovery.
Cloudflare rolled out a fix and began monitoring its effectiveness shortly after the problems emerged. The company estimated roughly 26 minutes from initial disruption to substantial restoration of services.
Crypto Platforms Face Infrastructure Dependency Questions
The two outages in three weeks have highlighted the reliance of crypto platforms on third-party infrastructure. Decentralized finance protocols market themselves as alternatives to traditional finance but depend on centralized web services.
The December 5 Cloudflare disruption affected approximately 20% of global internet traffic. The scale of impact from a single company’s firewall adjustment has brought up discussions about infrastructure resilience.
No major crypto exchange reported permanent data loss or fund misappropriation during the outage. The disruptions were limited to access and trading capabilities during the 40-minute window.
