On November 18, 2025, at approximately 11:20 UTC, Cloudflare experienced one of its most significant service disruptions since 2019, sending shockwaves through the global cryptocurrency ecosystem. The outage, which lasted nearly three hours, exposed a critical vulnerability in the crypto mining industry: the heavy dependence on centralized internet infrastructure for what is ostensibly a decentralized operation.
What Caused the Cloudflare Outage
The disruption originated from a technical failure in Cloudflare’s Bot Management system. A database permissions change caused a feature configuration file to expand beyond its expected size, doubling in volume and triggering widespread 500 internal server errors across the company’s global network. Cloudflare, which handles approximately 20% of global web traffic and supports over 25 million online properties, confirmed that the incident was not caused by a cyberattack or malicious activity.
The outage affected major cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase and Kraken, blockchain explorers like Etherscan and Arbiscan, DeFi platforms such as Aave and DefiLlama, and critically, several major mining pools that miners rely on for daily operations.
Regional Impact on Crypto Mining Operations
The Cloudflare outage created cascading disruptions across all major mining regions, with varying degrees of impact based on infrastructure dependencies:
North America (Estimated 35% of Mining Operations Affected)
The outage struck during early morning hours on the US East Coast (6:00-7:00 AM ET), disrupting mining pool connections, monitoring dashboards, and payout systems. Miners in regions heavily dependent on cloud-based mining management systems experienced complete loss of operational visibility. An estimated 35% of North American mining operations reported connectivity issues with their primary mining pools, forcing automatic failover to backup pools where configured.
Europe (Estimated 42% of Mining Operations Affected)
European miners faced the most significant disruptions, with Cloudflare nodes across major data center locations including Bucharest, Zurich, Warsaw, Oslo, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Stockholm, and Hamburg completely offline. The outage occurred during peak European business hours (approximately 12:20-15:20 CET), when many industrial mining operations conduct critical monitoring and maintenance activities. Mining farms relying on Cloudflare-protected pool interfaces experienced approximately 42% service degradation.
Asia (Estimated 28% of Mining Operations Affected)
Asian mining operations, particularly in regions with robust alternative infrastructure, experienced relatively lower disruption rates of approximately 28%. However, miners dependent on Western-based mining pool interfaces and management platforms still faced intermittent connectivity issues. The outage occurred during evening hours in most Asian markets, reducing immediate operational impact but affecting scheduled maintenance windows.
Middle East (Estimated 31% of Mining Operations Affected)
Mining operations in the Middle East, an emerging market for cryptocurrency mining due to competitive energy costs, saw approximately 31% service disruption. The region’s heavy reliance on international pool connections and management interfaces made operations particularly vulnerable to the Cloudflare failure.
South America (Estimated 38% of Mining Operations Affected)
South American miners experienced significant challenges, with an estimated 38% reporting disruptions. The outage was particularly problematic for operations in countries where miners are already navigating complex profitability challenges in 2025, as the connectivity loss prevented real-time monitoring of efficiency metrics and profitability calculations.
How the Outage Affected Mining Operations
While Bitcoin’s blockchain itself continued operating normally, miners faced several critical challenges:
Pool Connectivity Loss: Miners using pools hosted behind Cloudflare infrastructure experienced complete disconnection, resulting in wasted hashrate during the outage period. Mining rigs automatically switched to backup pools where configured, but operations without failover systems simply stopped submitting shares.
Dashboard and Monitoring Failures: Mining management platforms, profitability calculators, and real-time monitoring tools became inaccessible. Operators could not track hashrate performance, temperature readings, or energy consumption metrics, creating operational blind spots during the three-hour window.
Payment Processing Delays: Some mining pools experienced delays in payout processing and wallet interface access, preventing miners from monitoring their earnings or initiating withdrawals.
Firmware and Configuration Issues: Miners attempting to adjust configurations or update firmware during the outage window faced failures, as many mining hardware management platforms rely on Cloudflare’s network infrastructure.
The Critical Importance of Stable Internet for Crypto Mining
This incident underscored a fundamental truth: cryptocurrency mining, despite blockchain’s decentralized nature, requires reliable internet connectivity to function effectively. Here’s why stable internet access is non-negotiable for mining operations:
Continuous Pool Communication: Mining rigs must maintain constant communication with mining pools to receive work assignments and submit completed shares. Even brief connectivity interruptions result in wasted computational power and lost revenue opportunities.
Real-Time Profitability Monitoring: Modern mining operations depend on continuous access to profitability calculators and post-halving analysis tools to make informed decisions about when to mine, which coins to target, and when to power down operations during low-profitability periods.
Difficulty Adjustment Tracking: Bitcoin’s difficulty adjusts approximately every two weeks. Miners need internet access to monitor these changes and adjust their operations accordingly to maintain profitability.
Hardware Health Monitoring: Professional mining operations use internet-connected monitoring systems to track ASIC temperatures, fan speeds, and power consumption. Internet outages prevent early detection of hardware failures, potentially leading to costly equipment damage.
Stratum Protocol Dependency: The Stratum mining protocol, used by virtually all modern mining pools, requires stable TCP/IP connections. Network instability causes frequent reconnections, reducing mining efficiency and increasing rejected shares.
Industry Response and Lessons Learned
The November 18 outage sparked renewed discussions about infrastructure resilience in the crypto mining sector. Industry experts emphasized several key takeaways:
Diversified Infrastructure: Mining operations should implement multi-provider strategies, avoiding single points of failure. This includes using mining pools with different infrastructure providers and implementing automatic failover systems.
Local Network Monitoring: Operators should maintain local network monitoring capabilities that don’t depend on cloud services, ensuring visibility into hardware performance even during internet disruptions.
Backup Pool Configuration: All mining rigs should be configured with multiple backup pool connections across different infrastructure providers to minimize downtime during provider-specific outages.
Edge Computing Solutions: Some analysts suggest that mining operations should explore edge computing and locally-hosted monitoring solutions to reduce dependence on centralized cloud services.
Looking Forward: Building Resilient Mining Operations
The Cloudflare incident serves as a wake-up call for the mining industry. While we cannot eliminate all infrastructure dependencies, miners can take proactive steps to build more resilient operations:
- Implement redundant pool connections with automatic failover capabilities
- Diversify infrastructure providers for management dashboards and monitoring tools
- Maintain local backup systems for critical operational data
- Regularly test failover procedures to ensure they function during actual outages
- Monitor multiple independent sources for network health and blockchain status
The cryptocurrency mining industry stands at an interesting crossroads. As operations become increasingly sophisticated and profitability margins tighten in the post-halving era, operational uptime becomes even more critical. The November 18 Cloudflare outage demonstrated that even a few hours of connectivity loss can translate to significant revenue impact across the global mining ecosystem.
For miners serious about long-term profitability and operational excellence, investing in redundant infrastructure and diversified connectivity isn’t optional—it’s essential. The mining operations that weather future disruptions will be those that learned from this incident and took proactive steps to build truly resilient systems.
