Amazon’s cloud unit, AWS, reported an outage at one of its data center zones in northern Virginia on Thursday. Because of this, derivatives marketplace CME Group and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase both said they had problems with their trading platforms.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the issues at AWS and CME were connected. However, Coinbase stated that the problems with its platform were caused by the AWS outage. AWS explained that its problem came from higher temperatures within a single data center. They observed early signs of recovery as they were able to get more cooling system capacity online.
As part of its recovery efforts, the cloud computing platform said it had moved traffic away from the affected “Availability Zone” for most services. An “Availability Zone” is made up of one or more connected physical data centers and is designed to work independently within an AWS Region.
Coinbase mentioned that some of its users might experience slower performance due to the AWS issue, but added that customer funds remained safe. Coinbase also said it was working to bring trading back online soon.
In an update on its website, CME, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace, stated it had finished necessary maintenance work and users could now log in to its CME Direct trading platform. It did not say what caused the technical and delay issues. Both CME and AWS did not immediately reply to requests for comment outside of normal business hours.
This latest disruption follows a major AWS outage in October last year that caused widespread problems for thousands of websites globally, including popular apps like Snapchat and Reddit.
That was the biggest internet disruption since the CrowdStrike malfunction in 2024. That event crippled technology systems in hospitals, banks, and airports, showing how vulnerable the world’s connected technologies are.
In the following month, global futures markets were disrupted for several hours after CME Group experienced one of its longest outages in years, stopping trading across stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies. CME at the time blamed that outage on a cooling failure at data centers run by CyrusOne, which said its Chicago-area facility had affected services for customers, including CME.
