The past week in the technology and cryptocurrency sectors was marked by a series of dramatic developments—none more disruptive than the sweeping internet outage triggered by Cloudflare on November 18, 2025. The incident, which affected at least 20% of all global internet traffic, exposed the fragility of our increasingly digital world and sent shockwaves through the markets, particularly for cryptocurrencies and tech giants alike.
According to ForkLog, the outage was not just a blip; it was a wake-up call. Major online platforms, including social network X, OpenAI, Spotify, Amazon Web Services, Uber, and the wildly popular video game League of Legends, all experienced significant disruptions. The ripple effect extended deep into the crypto world, with exchanges such as Coinbase, the L2 network Base, online broker Robinhood, and trading platform BitMEX all reporting issues. Even wallet provider Ledger and several blockchains—TON, Cardano, and Filecoin—were not spared.
The scale of the disruption was staggering. At least one in five internet connections was impacted, underscoring just how much modern life depends on a handful of infrastructure providers. As detailed by a representative from EthStorage in ForkLog, "The provider’s malfunction highlighted crypto projects’ dependence on centralised internet infrastructure." The expert continued, "Decentralising blockchains through consensus, a robust validator set and smart contracts is necessary, but it represents only one side of the equation. True resilience requires rethinking the entire stack, not just the distributed-ledger layer."
Cloudflare Inc. (NET) saw its shares tumble from $208 to $187 over the week, reflecting investor anxiety about the company’s central role in the digital ecosystem and the potential for future outages. The Filecoin blockchain team echoed these concerns, stating that the Cloudflare outage "demonstrated how much traffic passes through a handful of centralised networks." As of November 23, 2025, these recurring outages have sparked not only technical soul-searching but also mounting political pressure, as reported by several outlets. The world’s growing reliance on a small number of internet infrastructure companies has become a hot-button issue, with some policymakers now calling for increased oversight and diversification to prevent similar crises in the future.
While the internet outage dominated headlines, the cryptocurrency market was experiencing its own turbulence. Bitcoin, often dubbed "digital gold," suffered a sharp decline, falling to a six-month low of around $81,700 on November 21, 2025. This marked the lowest price since April and capped off a week of losses totaling about 10%. The asset’s market capitalization shrank to $1.72 trillion, and the overall crypto market contracted to $3.04 trillion. The Fear and Greed Index, a popular measure of market sentiment, plummeted to 13, signaling "extreme fear" among investors.
The downturn was not limited to bitcoin. Ethereum briefly touched $2,600 before stabilizing around $2,800, while BNB traded near $850 and Solana hovered at $130. All ten of the largest cryptocurrencies posted losses between 7% and 10%, mirroring bitcoin’s trajectory. According to Kronos Research’s chief investment officer Vincent Liu, the correction was linked to stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data for September, which was delayed by a government shutdown. The report revealed that the country added 119,000 new jobs—the largest jump since December—though unemployment also rose to 4.4% due to an expanding labor force. This data dented bullish expectations for Federal Reserve policy in December, with investors now placing the odds of continued monetary easing at 71%, down from 98% at the start of the month.
Adding to the week’s drama, the crypto sector saw a massive $2 billion in 24-hour liquidations on November 21, 2025, and realized losses reached levels not seen since the infamous FTX collapse. According to ForkLog, "Realised losses simultaneously reached levels unseen since the FTX collapse." The domino effect was clear: as bitcoin dominance remained high at 56.8%, other digital assets followed suit, deepening the market’s malaise.
Yet, amid the gloom, a milestone quietly passed. On November 17, 2025, the total number of bitcoins mined surpassed 19.95 million BTC, representing 95% of the programmed limit of 21 million coins. While this means most bitcoins are already in circulation, the remaining 5%—about 1.05 million coins—will be mined slowly over the next 115 years, until 2140. This gradual reduction is due to the built-in "halving" mechanism, which cuts the reward for miners roughly every four years. The next such event is expected in April 2028. Despite this, bitcoin miners’ fee income dropped to a 12-month low of $300,000 per day, just 1% of their total revenue, with the bulk now coming from the 3.125 BTC block reward. As on-chain data shows, the network’s main use remains value transfers, limiting the potential for high fee generation.
Meanwhile, there were signs of innovation on the horizon. The Ethereum Foundation revealed details about the upcoming launch of the Interop Layer (EIL), a protocol designed to unify Ethereum’s fragmented second-layer ecosystem into a "single chain." The goal, as stated in the Foundation’s blog, is for users to interact with the entire L2 ecosystem as a single Ethereum network: "No convoluted bridges, multiple chain names or fragmented balances. EIL is designed to restore a sense of unity without sacrificing decentralisation and security." The protocol promises to make wallets a single access point for the entire ecosystem, supporting automatic integration with new compatible networks and simplifying cross-network transactions.
Tech stocks also had a rollercoaster week. Nvidia, the American chipmaker at the heart of the AI boom, posted third-quarter revenues of $57 billion and a net profit of $32 billion, both smashing Wall Street forecasts. The company guided even higher for the fourth quarter, projecting $65 billion in revenue. CEO Jensen Huang was bullish, saying, "Demand for computing continues to rise in both training and inference—each is growing exponentially. We have entered a success spiral. The ecosystem is expanding rapidly—there are more and more developers of foundation models and AI startups across industries and countries. The technology is spreading everywhere, doing everything at once." Nvidia’s shares initially surged from $185 to $197 after the results but slid back to $180 by week’s end as broader market jitters set in.
Huang was quick to address concerns that the AI industry might be in a bubble, offering three reasons why he believes otherwise: areas such as data processing, ad recommendations, and search are moving to GPUs because they require AI; AI technologies are not only being embedded into existing apps but are also enabling entirely new products; and the rise of agentic AI capable of reasoning and planning will drive further demand for computing resources.
As the dust settles from a week of outages, market volatility, and record-breaking tech earnings, one thing is clear: the digital world’s reliance on a handful of infrastructure providers and the interconnectedness of crypto and tech markets have never been more apparent. The events of November 2025 will likely prompt renewed debate about how to build a more resilient, decentralized, and equitable digital future.
