China’s Cyberattack Allegations & AWS Meltdown Paralyze Crypto Infrastructure - Coinbase Among Major Casualties
Digital infrastructure crumbles as geopolitical tensions meet technical failures in perfect storm
THE DOUBLE WHAMMY
China's suspected cyber offensive coincides with AWS infrastructure collapse - creating unprecedented internet-wide disruption that's hammering cryptocurrency platforms globallyCOINBASE GOES DARK
The exchange giant joins growing list of crypto services knocked offline, leaving traders stranded mid-session and sparking volatility fears across digital asset marketsINFRASTRUCTURE FRAGILITY EXPOSED
Single points of failure in cloud computing become painfully evident as the backbone of modern finance demonstrates its vulnerability - because what could possibly go wrong when we centralize decentralized systems?THE AFTERSHOCKS
Market makers scramble while traders face frozen positions and disappearing liquidity - proving once again that in crypto, the only certainty is uncertainty itself
It’s been a chaotic start to the week for the global internet and crypto wasn’t spared. Within a few hours, China accused the U.S. of launching a major cyberattack, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the world’s biggest cloud provider – suffered a massive outage that took down hundreds of popular apps, including Coinbase, Venmo, and Robinhood.
The timing of the two events has sparked plenty of online chatter. While there’s no confirmed link, the back-to-back disruptions have once again exposed how dependent even the crypto industry is on centralized web infrastructure.
China Points Fingers at the U.S.
On Sunday, China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) claimed it had “obtained irrefutable evidence” that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) hacked into its National Time Service Center, a key government facility that keeps Beijing Time synced across the country’s finance, defense, and transport sectors.
According to the MSS, the U.S. began the covert operation in March 2022, using 42 different cyber tools to infiltrate systems and steal state data. The agency accused Washington of “aggressively pursuing cyber-hegemony” and “trampling on international norms.”
China said the attack could have disrupted power, communication, and financial operations.
AWS Outage Brings Down Half the Internet
Barely a day later, early Monday morning, Amazon Web Services experienced a large-scale outage centered in its North Virginia (US-EAST-1) region. The issue affected Core services like DynamoDB and EC2, which thousands of companies rely on for computing and data storage.
As a result, apps and websites across industries went offline – from Snapchat and Roblox to Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase. Even Amazon’s own services like Alexa, Ring, and Prime Video were hit.
AWS confirmed “increased error rates” and said engineers were working to restore services. By late morning, some platforms began showing signs of recovery.
Coinbase Confirms All Funds Are Safe
Crypto exchange Coinbase, which runs on AWS, was among the hardest hit. Users faced login issues and transaction delays before the company confirmed that “all funds are safe.” Coinbase later said systems were stabilizing and services were coming back online.
We're aware many users are currently unable to access Coinbase due to an AWS outage.
Our team is working on the issue and we'll provide updates here. All funds are safe.
The brief outage reminded traders just how connected the crypto ecosystem still is to centralized systems.
A Wake-Up Call for the Digital World?
Two back-to-back incidents – a cyberattack accusation and a major cloud failure – have proved one thing: the internet, and by extension crypto, isn’t as resilient as we’d like to believe.
For now, AWS is recovering, Coinbase is back online, and both governments are silent.
