AWS Outage Shakes Binance, KuCoin and MEXC

Leading Crypto Exchanges Disrupted by AWS Outage

Some of the world’s largest centralized exchanges—including Binance, KuCoin, and MEXC—suffered significant service disruptions on April 15, following a major network interruption at Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS, which powers key infrastructure for high-frequency crypto trading, reported “connectivity issues” affecting at least 12 of its services. The outage crippled critical functionalities across multiple platforms, including failed trade executions, withdrawal delays, and app display issues.

“We are seeing initial signs of recovery but continue to monitor and work toward full recovery,” AWS stated in a mid-day update.

Binance, KuCoin, and MEXC Hit Hard

Binance was quick to acknowledge the issue. The exchange posted on X that certain services were being affected and users might encounter failed order attempts due to the AWS downtime.

“Some orders are still successful, but some are failing. If users failed, they may keep retrying,” Binance said.

Later updates confirmed that withdrawals and key services were restored after coordination with AWS support. KuCoin and MEXC also issued alerts. KuCoin described it as a “large-scale network outage”, while MEXC warned of chart irregularities, cancellation failures, and delayed transfers—though it reassured users that funds remained secure. 

Impacted Platforms and Partial Recover

As of 9:30 AM UTC, at least eight crypto platforms had publicly confirmed AWS-related issues. These included:

• Gate.io

• Coinstore

• DeBank

• Rabby Wallet

• Weex

By 1:50 PM UTC, most exchanges reported full service restoration, with DeBank being the notable exception still undergoing resolution. The event exposed a critical vulnerability in the centralized infrastructure of Web3 applications: a single point of failure affecting a significant portion of the global crypto market.

A Wake-Up Call for Decentralized Infrastructure?

The outage reignited the decentralization debate among blockchain developers and market participants.

“AWS down and 90% of crypto is down. Decentralization is a meme,” said Edmund Chua, head of mETH Protocol, in a post on X.

“It’s a solid reminder: Maybe it’s time to explore decentralized cloud services,” added Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget.

With AWS used by top exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, BitMEX, and Crypto.com, the event has driven interest in alternative infrastructure models such as:

• Filecoin for decentralized storage.

• Akash Network for cloud computing.

• Render Network for GPU processing.

These decentralized solutions aim to eliminate centralized chokepoints, reduce service disruptions, and promote true Web3 resilience.