Cryptocurrency exchange Upbit says traders’ funds are secure after an outage triggered by a widespread Amazon Web Services (AWS) network failure.
The exchange stopped trading for about an hour an hour. Upbit’s statement reads,
“Due to the current server failure (Amazon internal DNS issue), you can not temporarily use up-bit service.”
“In order to protect your assets and secure transactions when you resume KRW transactions, we will cancel your orders under the following conditions.
[Cancellation of orders]
2018-11-22 Purchase order with a price higher than the last closing price based on the last closing time
2018-11-22 Sales order lower than the last closing price based on the last closing date”
Upbit is one of the most popular crypto exchanges in South Korea.
AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon, is the most widely used on-demand cloud computing platform, powering internet-based businesses, global enterprises and platforms across a wide range of industries.
Despite the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, trading on major exchanges is heavily reliant on centralized cloud computing solutions such as AWS.
Upbit reported that the disruption was due to a domain name server issue and that the service had returned to normal.
According to a report by ZDNet, the AWS network failure also took out South Korea’s biggest e-commerce platform Coupang as well as the hotel booking service Yanolja, food delivery service Market Kurly, online media service company POOQ and crypto exchange Coinone.
AWS generated over $17 billion in revenue in 2017, accounting for roughly 10% of Amazon’s total revenue.
The world’s 17th largest exchange, Upbit posted a 24-hour trading volume of $186 million, according to data by CoinMarketCap, with leading trading pairs XRP/KRW and BTC/KRW comprising $89 million in volume. Operated by Dunamu, a partner of US-based exchange Bittrex, Upbit recently launched an exchange in Singapore.
