On April 15, 2025, a significant outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) disrupted operations across several major cryptocurrency exchanges, highlighting the industry's reliance on centralized cloud infrastructure.
Impacted Exchanges and Services
- Binance: The world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume temporarily suspended user withdrawals for approximately 23 minutes due to a connectivity issue at AWS's Tokyo data center. Services have since resumed, though some users reported lingering issues with placing trades.
- KuCoin: Reported temporary service disruptions linked to the same AWS outage. The exchange assured users that no data or assets were compromised and that services were being restored.
- MEXC: Warned users of potential issues, including abnormal chart displays and delays in asset transfers. The platform pledged to compensate users for any losses related to the outage.
- Other Platforms: Services like Rabby Wallet and DeBank also experienced outages tied to the AWS disruption.
AWS Outage Details
The AWS service interruption began at 1:15 a.m. PDT and was resolved by 1:51 a.m. PDT. The issue originated from a connectivity problem at the AWS Tokyo data center.
Broader Implications
This incident underscores the cryptocurrency industry's dependence on centralized cloud services. The disruptions have sparked discussions about the need for more decentralized infrastructure to enhance resilience and reduce single points of failure.