Pyth Network faced a network outage on Friday, resulting in a temporary shut down of the DeFi data provider’s core infrastructure for nearly four hours.
According to reports from Friday, the disruption took a toll on the network blockchain’s backbone, Pythnet, thereby halting price feed updates.
The incident is not a standalone issue but comes as the second outage for the Pyth Network. The downtime also highlights issues with oracle-dependent DeFi protocols.
How did the outage take place?
According to Pyth Network’s status page, the issue started when validators on Pythnet suddenly stopped producing blocks. This meant the system couldn’t generate fresh price updates, which many DeFi apps rely on in real time.
It took the team very little time to identify the problem and start working towards getting the network operational again, with an initial target of around 12:30 PM UTC for a resolution.
While core feeds of Pythnet were up and running again, not everything was smooth. Endpoints of Hermes, a protocol widely used by various apps to get prices, continued to have trouble throughout the day.
On the positive side, services such as Pyth Pro and Lazer remained uninterrupted.
Outage highlights issues with oracle based networks
The outage showed how dependent DeFi has become on oracle systems like Pyth Network. The network supplies real-time price data to many applications, especially on fast chains like Solana.
Oracle services in the cryptocurrency world are secure middleware bridges that link segregated blockchain networks to external, off-chain data. Due to the inability of smart contracts to natively access the outside world, oracles play an important role. They tend to provide real-world data to initiate automatic contract executions.
In light of the outages experienced in Pyth Network, the system was bound to experience issues like delays or failure due to wrong pricing, failed transactions, or even missed liquidations in case of volatility.
Pyth has grown its ecosystem by fetching data from various institutional sources and distributing the data across multiple blockchains. It’s popular because it delivers very fast updates, which is exactly what high-speed DeFi markets rely on.
Pyth Network outage comes after launch of Pyth Terminal
The outage at Pyth Network came just two days after it launched its new Pyth Terminal on May 20.
The tool is a public dashboard where users can track live price feeds, view charts, compare data with other sources, and subscribe to Pyth Pro with tiered pricing and free trials.
At the time of writing, the company still hadn’t shared an update explaining what went wrong or how the issue was being fully resolved.
This isn’t the first time Pyth has faced downtime either. Earlier incidents, sometimes linked to issues on underlying blockchains like Solana, have already shown how dependent oracle networks are on broader infrastructure working smoothly.
As DeFi continues to develop, there will be more emphasis placed on oracle providers developing backup systems and having access to multiple data feeds. Given that so much money is at stake, the industry is keeping a close eye on how quickly Pyth can sort things out.
