AWS halts cryptocurrency exchange services, raises alarm over centralization

• AWS outage temporarily takes down crypto services
• Binance and KuCoin report technical instability
• Infrastructure centralization worries crypto sector

An outage on Amazon Web Services (AWS) on April 15 caused instability on several cryptocurrency platforms and reignited concerns about the centralization of the digital infrastructure that supports the sector. The outage lasted just over an hour and directly impacted exchanges and wallet and on-chain data providers.

Binance, considered the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced the temporary suspension of withdrawals due to technical difficulties related to connectivity. The company confirmed that some transaction orders were not processed due to the interruption. Shortly after, it reported that services were gradually being restored, but could still experience slowdowns during the normalization process.

All services are starting to recover and resume. Withdrawals have also reopened. Please note that some services might experience delays while the system fully recovers.

We will continue to monitor to ensure that all operations run smoothly. Thank you for your patience and…

- Binance (@binance) April 15, 2025

Another exchange affected was KuCoin, which reported similar outages in its system. The company reinforced that user funds were protected while its technical team worked to restore operations. Platforms such as Rabby Wallet and DeBank also issued warnings about the instability.

The incident has once again highlighted the risks of relying on single infrastructure providers. Santeri Aramo, co-founder of Auki Network, echoed this concern, saying: “This is exactly why we build decentralized infrastructure. No single point of failure. No gatekeeper. No lock-in for your funds. Own your keys. Own your future.”

According to AWS itself, the outage was caused by power failures on both primary and backup systems. The issue affected at least 15 different services, including Amazon EC2 instances and the relational database service. While most resources were restored quickly, some continued to experience instability even after the fix.

The episode exposes a paradox that still persists in the market: while cryptocurrencies promote decentralization, many operations still depend on centralized infrastructure, such as Amazon's cloud, which dominates a large part of the global market.