Coinbase warns users of connectivity issues due to Amazon AWS outage

Major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is experiencing “elevated error rates on some backend systems due to an AWS service outage,” according to an official post on Nov. 25 shortly after 7:00 pm PST.

In an announcement posted nine hours prior, Coinbase said that trading was not being impacted at the time. The following update removed this statement, stating:

“You may encounter intermittent delays or errors while transacting, as well as accessing other parts of our applications. Customer support inquiries are also delayed.”

The AWS issue has had a significant impact on the tech sector more broadly, with platforms such as Adobe Spark, Flickr and online newspapers all being affected within the last 24 hours. Headlines have run with claims the outage has taken “a portion of the internet down” and “hobbles businesses.”

Within the narrower context of Coinbase’s performance, this latest outage is not something entirely new. As reported, between March and November of this year alone, the platform recorded nine separate issues that led to different types of outages or connectivity issues of varying severity. Widespread discontent prompted Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to respond publicly.

We're working hard to add additional capacity (both in servers and customer support) to deal with increased traffic. Thank you for your patience during this time. And thank you to the team at Coinbase working hard to serve our customers! Bull runs can be exciting and stressful.

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) November 18, 2020

As of press time, Armstrong has not tweeted regarding the latest incident with AWS and its impact on services. Just two days ago, amid major volatility in XRP’s price, the exchange was also reported to be experiencing problems, even though its official status page indicated that operations were running smoothly.