AWS Outage Disrupts Major Crypto Services Including Coinbase and Infura

A widespread Oct. 20, 2025 AWS failure halted operations on Coinbase, Infura, and other major platforms, amplifying concerns about centralized infrastructure dependence in the crypto sector.

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Summary

On Oct. 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services experienced a major outage that caused service interruptions for thousands of platforms, including leading crypto services. Coinbase’s trading platform and its Base layer-2 network went offline, along with ConsenSys’ Infura, Robinhood, and multiple blockchain networks such as Ethereum Mainnet, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Linea, Base, and Scroll. Infura attributed the disruption to a recurring AWS-related issue affecting multiple network endpoints. While blockchain consensus layers continued to function, user-facing gateways and APIs were down, disrupting many applications. The incident follows a similar AWS disruption in April 2025 and reignited community debate over the industry's dependence on centralized cloud providers.

Terms & Concepts
  • Layer-2 Network: A blockchain scaling solution built on top of a layer-1 blockchain, enabling faster transactions and lower fees but often still reliant on centralized infrastructure.
  • Infura: A blockchain infrastructure service providing APIs for wallet and application connectivity to networks like Ethereum, Polygon, and others.
  • Decentralization: The distribution of control and operation across multiple independent entities, reducing reliance on a single authority or provider.