The latest Amazon AWS outage has sent shockwaves through the financial world, leaving major platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood in the dark. The full-blown fiasco got traders yelling at their screens when the Amazon AWS outage struck at the Northern Virginia data center.
The Amazon AWS outage was first felt when Coinbase crypto exchanges felt the brunt of it. Their mobile app took a huge hit too. Users were locked out, orders froze mid-air, and withdrawals turned into a waiting game from hell. Even the Base app joined the party crash, leaving everyone wondering if their digital fortunes were vanishing into thin air. Users got the “Increased error rates and latencies” error message.
The catastrophic Amazon AWS outage
Yesterday’s outage marks the second major Amazon AWS outage since April, when similar “connectivity issues” turned eight big crypto exchanges into usability nightmares. This list included Binance, KuCoin, MEXC Coinstore, Gate.io, DeBank, Rabby Wallet and Weex.
Today Robinhood, the stock-trading platform wasn’t spared either. Traders reported delays in executions and API meltdowns that made buying low and selling high feel like a cruel joke.
No other exchanges piped up about issues, but the ripple effects had everyone on edge, highlighting just how fragile our centralized financial fortresses really are. One crypto trader, Kushy, summed it up saying “Amazon down, Robinhood down, Reddit down, McDonald’s down, Fortnite down.” It’s like the internet decided to take a collective nap, courtesy of this relentless Amazon AWS outage.
The road to recovery
About three hours after the first reports, AWS posted an update saying, “We can confirm global services and features that rely on US-EAST-1 have also recovered. We continue to work towards full resolution.”
Coinbase chimed in on X too: “We’re seeing early signs of recovery, with some users being able to access and use Coinbase services now.”
But, Amazon AWS outage is a glaring reminder of putting all your eggs in one cloudy basket. Dr. Max Li, founder and CEO of OORT called it a “wake-up call” for the crypto crew.
“This highlights why decentralized solutions are essential,” he had said.
This mess has reignited the push for decentralized alternatives, especially with some exciting contenders in the space. For instance, Vanar Chain’s Neutron, launched just weeks after the last debacle, is an AI-native blockchain that crushes data compression to 500:1 ratios.
CEO Jawad Ashraf affirms it lets you store files fully on-chain, no third-party drama.
“This unlocks entirely new possibilities: from simply storing a file fully on-chain without relying on third parties, to querying and verifying the actual information inside the file,” he said.
Then there’s the Internet Computer protocol alternative which dishes out decentralized computing and storage worldwide. Additionally there is Filecoin for storage, Akash Network for computing, and Render Network for GPU muscle.
AWS powers the big guns like Binance, Coinbase, BitMEX, Huobi, Crypto.com, Kraken with lightning-fast, low-latency magic for massive trades. But when the Amazon AWS outage hits, it exposes the problem of centralized clouds.
In that sense, this catastrophic Amazon AWS outage isn’t just blip; it’s a major wake up call urging the industry to evolve.
