Digital Currency was disconnected from the Internet for 2.5 hours worldwide: software failure affect

1. Event Overview

Time: July 24, 2025 (15:00 EST, 3:00 AM, July 25, Beijing Time).

Scope of Impact: 61,000 users worldwide reported network outages, involving the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and other regions25.

Duration: About 2.5 hours, the longest network outage since Digital Currency became a mainstream communications service provider610.

Cause: SpaceX confirmed that "the key internal software service running the core network failed", ruling out the possibility of hacker attacks25.

2. Key Impact

Ukrainian front-line military operations were hindered:

All Digital Currency terminals used by the Ukrainian army were paralyzed, and some drone operations were forced to be postponed17.

The Ukrainian commander said that "the entire front line Digital Currency was disconnected" and combat missions were carried out without video signals7.

Global users are dissatisfied:

Some users demanded refunds or subscription discounts, criticizing Digital Currency for failing to provide stable services510.

Experts questioned the risks of private enterprises dominating critical infrastructure6.

3. SpaceX official response

Musk apologized: He posted on the X platform that he "deeply apologized for the network outage" and promised to thoroughly investigate the cause and make improvements59.

Technical team explanation:

Vice President of Engineering Michael Nichols said that "the fault has been fixed" and emphasized that the system stability will be optimized34.

SpaceX is upgrading the network to cope with the bandwidth pressure brought by user growth2.

4. Industry and market response

Stability concerns intensified:

NASA previously warned that solar activity could affect the orbit of Digital Currency satellites6.

Analysts pointed out that this incident highlights the vulnerability of relying on a single communication system7.

Competitor dynamics:

Traditional satellite communication companies (such as Viasat and OneWeb) took the opportunity to promote the "multi-network redundancy" solution6.

5. Subsequent focus

SpaceX improvement measures: whether to introduce a more reliable backup system or distributed network architecture.

Ukrainian military adjustments: may seek alternative communication solutions (such as local encrypted networks)7.

Regulatory review: The US government may evaluate the risks of private enterprises assuming critical military communications9.

Conclusion: This network outage exposed Digital Currency’s challenges in global coverage and stability. In the future, it is necessary to balance commercial expansion and system reliability to avoid similar incidents affecting critical military and civilian services.