Amazon Web Services (AWS) faced a temporary outage on April 15, causing disruptions for several major cryptocurrency platforms and raising concerns about the industry’s reliance on centralized infrastructure.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, took precautionary measures by temporarily suspending withdrawals due to connectivity issues stemming from the AWS disruption. The exchange confirmed that some transaction orders had failed as a result.
Fortunately, Binance announced that services were gradually recovering and withdrawals had resumed within an hour of the initial disruption. However, users were advised that delays might persist as the system fully restored.
KuCoin, another prominent crypto trading platform, also experienced disruptions due to the AWS incident. The exchange reassured users that their funds and data were secure while its technical team worked to address the issue.
In addition to Binance and KuCoin, other platforms like crypto wallet Rabby and analytics provider DeBank posted notices of service interruptions related to the AWS outage.
The incident reignited discussions about the importance of decentralized backend systems in the crypto industry. Santeri Aramo, co-founder of Auki Network, emphasized the vulnerability of centralized infrastructure and advocated for decentralized solutions to prevent future disruptions.
The AWS outage, which lasted from 12:40 A.M. to 1:43 A.M. PDT, affected 15 different services due to power interruptions at both primary and backup systems. While most services were quickly restored, the relational database service remained affected for a longer period.
Users experienced delayed responses and failed connections to EC2 instances in the affected zone during the outage. AWS assured users that the issue had been resolved and no further problems were anticipated.
This incident underscored the risks associated with centralizing critical operations under a single service provider, highlighting the importance of decentralization in the crypto space. While AWS currently dominates the global cloud infrastructure market, crypto platforms strive to minimize reliance on centralized services to safeguard against potential disruptions.