The Corona Virus outbreak is getting out of hands every passing day. There is still no cure for this lethal virus and thousands of people have already died. The World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled the Coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic and there is widespread panic that is negatively impacting both the crypto and the traditional stock market.

CME to shutdown trading floor

As per a CNBC report, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) group, the popular trading platform that was the second firm to launch Bitcoin Futures in the United States, has now announced that it will suspend its Chicago trading floor citing concerns about the outbreak.

CME is the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange and hosts a plethora of trading options like agricultural products, fiat, cryptocurrencies, interest rates, metals, and stock indexes. In a statement, the company said:

“No coronavirus cases have been reported on the trading floor or in the Chicago Board of Trade building. The reopening of the trading floor will be evaluated as more medical guidance on the coronavirus becomes available.”

Throughout the globe, financial markets have been suffering from big names like Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1500 points in 24 hours. Among others, the UK’s FTSE was down 7.7%. Asian markets are suffering as well, as Japan’s Nikkei closed down 5.1% below Friday’s close.

However, the New York Stock Exchange remains open despite the 200+ confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the city. The Nasdaq, also based in New York, is preparing a backup trading floor and data facility in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard business center, and continues to remain open for business.

Crypto-companies to work remotely

Some Crypto-based companies are taking a different approach to staying operational. Popular crypto exchange Coinbase has directed its employees to minimize travel and work from home. Furthermore, the exchange is also restricting business travel to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, and South Korea.

An update on COVID-19. We're asking some employees to start working from home this week.https://t.co/RJo1KfcpCA



Working from home is not a complete solution, but it may help slow the growth of infections. https://t.co/yy3gAwFNsT — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) March 2, 2020

Crypto analytics firm Messari has also taken similar steps as the company founded Ryan Selkis announced that the crypto analytics firm would “go remote-first indefinitely”. Citing the U.S. government’s poor response to contain the epidemic. A part of the statement reads: