Database Error Takes Down 20% of Internet: Cloudflare Outage Disrupts Global Crypto Trading
A simple database permission change triggered a massive internet outage on November 18, 2025, knocking offline major cryptocurrency exchanges, social media platforms, and thousands of websites worldwide.
The incident exposed how much of the internet depends on just a few infrastructure companies.
What Happened During the Outage
At 11:20 UTC on November 18, Cloudflare’s network began experiencing widespread failures. The company, which handles about 20% of all internet traffic, suffered a complete breakdown of its core systems for nearly three hours.
The problem started with a database change at 11:05 UTC. Cloudflare was improving security on its ClickHouse database system when something went wrong. The database began creating…
