Micro-Burst Congestion

Micro-burst congestion refers to short-lived, intense spikes in network traffic that exceed the capacity of a system to process requests. In financial markets, these bursts often occur during periods of high volatility when a flood of orders hits the matching engine simultaneously.

If the system cannot handle the burst, it results in dropped packets, increased latency, or system crashes. For crypto protocols, this can lead to failed transactions or delayed state updates, disrupting derivative settlement processes.

Managing these bursts is a major challenge for infrastructure designers who must balance performance with cost. These events can trigger systemic issues if they occur at critical moments in the trading cycle.