Update April 15, 9:17 am in UTC: This article has been updated with information throughout.
Binance, KuCoin, MEXC and other exchanges and wallet providers have been experiencing service issues due to a significant network interruption by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs) were hit by an AWS data center outage, which reported “connectivity issues” that affected at least 12 of its services on April 15.
AWS Service health. Source: Health.aws.amazon
“We are seeing initial signs of recovery but continue to monitor and work toward full recovery. Other AWS services are also impacted by this issue, and are also observing recovery. We will provide another update within the next 30-60 minutes,” AWS said in an April 15 update.
Binance was among the first to report issues with its services.
“We are aware of an issue impacting some services on the #Binance platform due to a temporary network interruption in the AWS data center,” wrote Binance in an April 15 X post, adding that “some orders are still successful, but some are failing. If users failed, they may keep retrying.”
Source: Binance
Binance has restored services, including user withdrawals, following technical support from AWS, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph
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Other large exchanges, including KuCoin and MEXC, also reported service interruptions.
“Due to a large-scale network outage with AWS services, our platform is currently experiencing temporary disruptions,” KuCoin said in an April 15 X post.
Source: MEXC
On MEXC, mobile app and web platform users were warned of “abnormal candlestick charts, failed order cancellations,” and asset transfer delays. However, users’ assets “remain fully secure,” the exchange said in an April 15 X post.
At least eight exchanges reported AWS-related issues as of 9:30 am UTC, including Coinstore, Gate.io, DeBank, Rabby Wallet and Weex. All the affected platforms have confirmed the restoration of their services as of 1:50 pm UTC, with the exception of DeBank.
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AWS provides cloud infrastructure for centralized exchanges that can handle high transaction volumes with low latency in trading orders. AWS is used by some of the biggest crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Huobi, BitMEX and Kraken.
The effect of the AWS outage may be perceived as another signal of the vulnerability of centralized infrastructure providers, which may suffer cascading effects due to a single point of failure.
AWS failure highlights need for decentralized alternatives
The wide-reaching impact of the AWS service disruption may highlight the need for more decentralized alternatives, eliminating single points of failure.
“AWS down and 90% of crypto is down. Decentralization is a meme,” Edmund Chua, the head of mETH Protocol, said in an April 15 X post.
Source: Gracy Chen
“AWS data center issues impacted several CEXs — no need to panic,” wrote Gracy Chen, the CEO of Bitget exchange, adding that “it’s a solid reminder: Maybe it’s time to explore decentralized cloud services.”
Decentralized alternatives include Filecoin for storage, decentralized computing marketplace Akash Network, and decentralized graphics processing unit compute service Render Network.
Additional reporting by Helen Partz.
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