Financial System at Risk by Global IT Outage: Bitcoin, Ethereum Unfazed
Traditional financial systems stopped in some parts of the world amid a global IT outage involving Microsoft and cybersecurity firm CrowStrike. However, Bitcoin and Ethereum networks remain unaffected, and trading activity continues.
Crypto and its inherent blockchain technology remain resilient, showing what the otherwise conservative financial market could grow into.
Crypto Markets Unaffected by Global Outage
As players in traditional finance bear the brunt of a widespread IT downtime, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and crypto, in general, continue undeterred. After a global IT outage, multiple platforms and businesses halted operations on Friday. According to DownDectector, a website that tracks user-reported internet outages, services at Visa, Amazon, major banks, and even the London Stock Exchange (LSE) continue to experience outages, disrupting services.
“Hearing rumors that Ethereum is still validating blocks and is completely unaffected by centralization risks,” said adcv, a popular account on X.
Bitcoin and Ethereum prices defend their over 10% weekly gains, with bullish sentiment still abounding despite fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) among affected banks and other traditional finance-dependent institutions.
“You know what didn’t suffer a global outage? Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. We are still trading. We are still sending it. We are still stacking and we are still chasing shit coins. I still think we need physical cash but if we going digital crypto is the way,” Wombat, another popular account on X, commented.
The crisis came hours after the technology firm Microsoft said it was gradually fixing an issue that affected access to Microsoft 365 apps and services. It remains unclear what caused the outage, its exact nature, and its scale. However, some highlight a problem at the global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
Read more: Crypto Project Security: A Guide to Early Threat Detection
Reportedly, CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor malfunctioned, affecting its clients, including Microsoft. This means it is not a cyber attack but a technical glitch. CrowdStrike assured users that its engineers are working to resolve the issue.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels,” said CrowStrike CEO George Kurtz.
Crypto Holds Firm as Banks Succumb to IT Woes
The Spectator Index called the current event “one of the biggest outages ever,” which seems to have crippled the banking system in several parts of the world. Among them, the German bank, with Euronext, a pan-European bourse offering trading and post-trade services for several financial instruments, also reporting some Northern American markets’ stocks-based indices are currently being incorrectly broadcasted.
Issues have also been reported in Australia, India, the United States, and New Zealand, highlighting the risks of centralized IT solutions and elevating decentralized alternatives as a measure of resilience and security.
“While internet connections, banks, airports, and even the LSE reporting system are facing outages worldwide due to Microsoft outage when interacting with Crowdstrike antivirus, Web3 has remained stable and secure,” noted segment lead at Ethereum, Everstake.
Read more: 9 Best Blockchain Protocols To Know in 2024
As cryptocurrencies remain unaffected, decentralized technology emerges as a more resilient infrastructure, providing a reliable alternative to traditional systems prone to such attacks. As the blockchain sector matures, it may gain consideration as a potential backup.
