- AWS’s US-EAST-1 region suffered a major disruption caused by DynamoDB failures.
- Platforms like Coinbase, Reddit, Amazon, and Hulu were temporarily offline.
- Coinbase confirmed user funds are secure despite temporary service outages.
Millions of users around the world woke up Monday to widespread internet outages that left some of the most popular platforms inaccessible. Services including Snapchat, Amazon, Coinbase, Reddit, Hulu, EA, and Xbox Network all experienced downtime linked to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) failure. The disruption was traced to AWS’s “US-EAST-1” region in northern Virginia — a critical hub for cloud infrastructure powering much of the internet.
AWS Confirms the Root Cause
AWS said the issue originated in its DynamoDB service, which handles essential backend operations for thousands of apps and websites. “We are seeing significant error rates for requests made to DynamoDB in the US-EAST-1 region,” the company confirmed in a status update. The outage also impacted AWS’s own support tools, preventing customers from opening or updating tickets. Engineers are currently “actively working to mitigate the issue and fully understand the root cause,” AWS said, promising continuous updates as services gradually come back online.
Coinbase Reassures Users: “All Funds Are Safe”
Among the affected services was Coinbase, the world’s largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange. The outage prevented many users from logging in or making transactions, sparking temporary panic across social media. Coinbase quickly issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter): “We’re aware many users are 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.” Because AWS provides infrastructure for Coinbase’s servers and data management, even a brief disruption can cascade across trading and wallet systems.
Widespread Impact Across Platforms
The scale of the outage was staggering. Millions of users reported issues with accessing or loading services across social platforms, entertainment apps, and gaming networks. Major sites including Reddit, Hulu, and EA Games faced partial or full downtime. Amazon’s own retail and streaming services were affected, as were Xbox Network servers and several financial services relying on AWS cloud infrastructure. Although most services began gradually restoring within hours, the event underscored how dependent the modern internet is on a handful of cloud providers.
