On April 15, 2025, a significant network outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused disruptions across several cryptocurrency exchanges and various other services in Japan. The issue, which began around 4:40 PM Japan time, affected numerous platforms, including Binance, KuCoin, and MEXC, along with smartphone payment services like PayPay and au PAY.
AWS reported that a "connection issue" impacted at least 14 services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances in a specific Availability Zone in the Tokyo region. The outage was due to a failure in both the main and backup power sources, which led to connection problems and errors in various AWS APIs. According to AWS, recovery signs began to appear shortly after the outage was reported, with full service restoration expected.
Binance was the first exchange to report the impact, stating via social media that "a temporary network issue at the AWS data center is affecting some Binance services." They advised users that while some transactions were successful, others failed, urging them to "retry in case of failure." Fortunately, major functions such as withdrawals were restored shortly thereafter.
KuCoin echoed similar concerns, announcing a "temporary service disruption" due to the AWS network failure. MEXC users experienced problems including "abnormal candlestick charts, order cancellation failures, and delays in asset transfers," but the platform reassured customers that "user assets are fully protected." This highlights the critical nature of cloud infrastructure in supporting cryptocurrency trading, where high-frequency trading and low latency are essential.
As the situation unfolded, AWS provided updates indicating that recovery efforts were ongoing. By 5:21 PM, they noted that recovery signs were visible, and they were continuing to monitor the situation. AWS also stated that they expected to provide further updates within the next hour.
In addition to cryptocurrency exchanges, the outage impacted several smartphone payment services. PayPay reported that their payment and charging functions became difficult to use for approximately 25 minutes starting at 4:40 PM. Similarly, au PAY experienced issues with QR code displays, which were resolved by around 5:00 PM. These disruptions raised concerns about the reliability of cloud services that many companies depend on for critical operations.
Japan Airlines (JAL) also faced challenges due to the AWS outage. They reported a system failure at around 5:00 PM that made it impossible to read the QR codes necessary for boarding. This issue lasted for about 30 minutes, but JAL confirmed that it did not impact flight operations.
As the largest player in the global cloud computing market, AWS holds about a 30% share and serves numerous companies in Japan and worldwide. The extensive impact of this outage underscores the vulnerability that businesses face when relying on a single cloud service provider.
By 6:00 PM, AWS announced that the problems had been resolved and that services were operating normally again. They committed to continuing investigations into the systems that were affected, aiming to prevent future occurrences.
This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of robust infrastructure in the digital age, where even brief outages can lead to widespread disruptions across various sectors. As companies increasingly rely on cloud services for their operations, ensuring reliability and resilience becomes paramount.
