A major outage in Amazon Web Services (AWS) disrupted operations across several leading cryptocurrency exchanges on April 15, exposing the vulnerability of centralized infrastructure relied upon by much of the digital asset industry.

Among those impacted were Binance, KuCoin, and MEXC, with users experiencing failed transactions, delayed asset transfers, and inaccurate price displays. 

The issues stemmed from connectivity disruptions within a specific AWS availability zone in Tokyo (apne1-az4), where both primary and secondary power supplies to certain EC2 instances were cut off, according to AWS’s official status update.

Initial Disruption and Service Recovery

The service interruption began around 12:40 AM PDT and lasted for over an hour, affecting a range of AWS services. Engineers responded swiftly, initiating automatic mitigations and recovery efforts. 

AWS confirmed the issue had been resolved and stated they do not expect the problem to recur. However, a small number of instances remain on hardware impacted by the power loss, and AWS has recommended replacing these where necessary.

Binance was among the first platforms to report disruptions, noting that while some user orders were processed successfully, others failed. "We are aware of an issue impacting some services on the #Binance platform due to a temporary network interruption in the AWS data center,” the company posted on X (formerly Twitter). Binance has since restored full functionality, including withdrawals, after working closely with AWS engineers.

Other exchanges including KuCoin and MEXC also experienced platform instability. KuCoin cited a “large-scale network outage” and warned users of temporary disruptions. MEXC, meanwhile, reported abnormal candlestick chart behavior and delayed order cancellations but assured customers that all user assets remain secure.

As of 9:30 AM UTC, at least eight exchanges had acknowledged AWS-related issues, including Gate.io, Coinstore, DeBank, Rabby Wallet, and Weex.

AWS is a key infrastructure provider for centralized exchanges due to its capacity to support high transaction volumes and low-latency environments. Other major platforms using AWS include Coinbase, Crypto.com, Kraken, BitMEX, and Huobi.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen added, “AWS data center issues impacted several CEXs — no need to panic. It’s a solid reminder: Maybe it’s time to explore decentralized cloud services.”