A major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on October 20, 2025, caused sweeping disruptions that took down countless online platforms—including crypto exchanges like Coinbase, major Ethereum Layer 2 networks, and a host of other internet services. The incident highlighted just how reliant the digital world, especially the crypto ecosystem, is on centralized cloud infrastructure.
The outage originated in AWS’s massive US-EAST-1 data center, causing an elevated error rate in key backend systems. As a result, platforms that process millions of user requests per second—from financial services and trading apps to streaming platforms and gaming networks—found themselves suddenly unable to serve users. For crypto, the effects were immediate and severe: Coinbase’s mobile app became inaccessible, preventing users from logging in, placing trades, or withdrawing funds. Frustration mounted as these outages occurred during peak trading hours, exposing the fragility of even the largest crypto exchanges.
But it wasn’t just Coinbase. Other high-profile platforms like Robinhood were hit with API failures and delays, while services from Reddit and Snapchat to banking apps and gaming ecosystems also suffered downtime or degraded performance. The interconnectivity of today’s online services means a single point of failure—like AWS—can cause ripples felt across both mainstream and decentralized sectors.
AWS’s engineering teams worked rapidly to restore affected services, reporting “significant signs of recovery” after a few hours. Coinbase assured users that their funds were safe and pledged transparent communication as systems came back online. Despite recovery, the outage once again reignited debate within the crypto and tech communities about the centralization risks posed by dependence on a handful of cloud providers for mission-critical infrastructure.
The incident is a reminder that even technologies aiming for decentralization, like cryptocurrencies and DeFi protocols, often remain tethered to centralized nodes in the tech stack. As calls grow louder for alternative, more resilient infrastructure—including decentralized or blockchain-based cloud solutions—this outage may serve as a crucial wake-up call for the future design of both traditional and crypto-powered platforms.