Bloomberg Terminal Outage Spurs Crypto Market Volatility

On May 21, 2025, the Bloomberg Terminal experienced a rare global outage lasting nearly three hours, disrupting access to real-time market data and analytics for financial professionals worldwide. The outage began during early trading hours and was widely reported by users on social media and Downdetector. Bloomberg confirmed restoration of functionality later in the morning, but during the outage, market participants struggled to access key trading and data services. The disruption coincided with significant volatility in cryptocurrency markets, with Bitcoin and Ethereum both experiencing sudden price drops as traders were cut off from critical cross-market data. The event forced financial professionals to seek alternative data and communication sources, underscoring the sector's heavy reliance on the Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg acknowledged the issue and apologized for the inconvenience.