- Coinbase confirmed that the AWS outage is causing problems in its web and mobile app services.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) crashed today. The incident has taken down multiple websites, services, and apps in the US-EAST-1 Region that rely on the cloud services platform, such as Alexa, Fortnite, Snapchat, and ChatGPT. Trading platforms Coinbase and Robinhood were among the infrastructures hit by the outage.
Coinbase Notifies Customers About AWS Outage Problem
Coinbase Support informed customers at around 7:46 AM UTC about the issue. As of writing, an hour after the announcement, the exchange assured them that its team is working to resolve the problem.
“We’re aware many users are currently unable to access Coinbase due to an AWS outage,” Coinbase Support notified users via X. “Our team is working on the issue and we’ll provide updates here. All funds are safe.”
In the comments section of the same post, Coinbase Support advised affected customers to check out the updates at its website’s Status Page. To quell the FUD revolving around the incident, it assured users that their funds were safe and thanked them for their patience.
According to the exchange, the AWS outage has prevented Coinbase customers from buying, selling, or logging into their web and mobile accounts. Additionally, it noted that the problem is not confined to Coinbase, as it covers multiple apps and services connected to AWS. Some users who have somehow gained access to their accounts said they had trouble withdrawing their funds, and the charts on their accounts are not displaying properly or are inaccurate.
AWS has yet to reveal the specific reason for the outage at the time of reporting. Meanwhile, Robinhood has yet to release a statement regarding the matter.
Exposing the Risks of Centralized Controls
The incident again highlights the inherent risks of centralized infrastructure in the financial sector, which affects assets under its custody. The case of Coinbase shows that even the decentralized systems of crypto are vulnerable when left at the mercy of a handful of powerful, centralized cloud providers.
The event came months after Binance halted trading on its platform due to AWS data center network interruptions. The connectivity issues in April led to the world’s leading crypto exchange by volume suspending its users’ withdrawals as a precaution. Another prominent crypto exchange, KuCoin, reported the same problem during the previous large-scale AWS outage.
A Call for Self-Sustainability
For the crypto community, the AWS outage underscores the urgent need for crypto platforms like Coinbase to build a more resilient and censorship-resistant financial system. Furthermore, members argue that crypto exchanges should start decoupling from user-facing and critical data services from centralized cloud monopolists like Amazon, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud to fully embrace blockchain and crypto’s vision of decentralization.
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