Update April 15, 9:17 am in UTC: This article has been updated with information throughout.

Binance, KuCoin, MEXC and other exchanges and wallet providers have been experiencing service issues due to a significant network interruption by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs) were hit by an AWS data center outage, which reported “connectivity issues” that affected at least 12 of its services on April 15.

AWS Service health. Source: Health.aws.amazon

“We are seeing initial signs of recovery but continue to monitor and work toward full recovery. Other AWS services are also impacted by this issue, and are also observing recovery. We will provide another update within the next 30-60 minutes,” AWS said in an April 15 update.

Binance was among the first to report issues with its services.

“We are aware of an issue impacting some services on the #Binance platform due to a temporary network interruption in the AWS data center,” wrote Binance in an April 15 X post, adding that “some orders are still successful, but some are failing. If users failed, they may keep retrying.”

Source: Binance

Binance has since restored services, including user withdrawals, thanks to the exchange’s quick collaboration with AWS, a Binance spokesperson confirmed to Cointelegraph.

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Other large exchanges, including KuCoin and MEXC, also reported service interruptions.

“Due to a large-scale network outage with AWS services, our platform is currently experiencing temporary disruptions,” KuCoin said in an April 15 X post.

Source: MEXC

On MEXC, mobile app and web platform users were warned of “abnormal candlestick charts, failed order cancellations,” and asset transfer delays. However, users’ assets “remain fully secure,” the exchange said in an April 15 X post.

At least eight exchanges reported AWS-related issues as of 9:30 am UTC, including Coinstore, Gate.io, DeBank, Rabby Wallet and Weex.

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AWS provides cloud infrastructure for centralized exchanges that can handle high transaction volumes with low latency in trading orders. AWS is used by some of the biggest crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Huobi, BitMEX and Kraken.

The effect of the AWS outage may be perceived as another signal of the vulnerability of centralized infrastructure providers, which may suffer cascading effects due to a single point of failure.

AWS failure highlights need for decentralized alternatives

The wide-reaching impact of the AWS service disruption may highlight the need for more decentralized alternatives, eliminating single points of failure.

“AWS down and 90% of crypto is down. Decentralization is a meme,” Edmund Chua, the head of mETH Protocol, said in an April 15 X post.

Source: Gracy Chen

“AWS data center issues impacted several CEXs — no need to panic,” wrote Gracy Chen, the CEO of Bitget exchange, adding that “it’s a solid reminder: Maybe it’s time to explore decentralized cloud services.”

Decentralized alternatives include Filecoin for storage, decentralized computing marketplace Akash Network, and decentralized graphics processing unit compute service Render Network.

Additional reporting by Helen Partz.

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Tech giant Meta has been given the green light from the European Union’s data regulator to train its artificial intelligence models using publicly shared content across its social media platforms.

Posts and comments from adult users across Meta’s stable of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, along with questions and queries to the company’s AI assistant, will now be used to improve its AI models, Meta said in an April 14 blog post.

The company said it’s “important for our generative AI models to be trained on a variety of data so they can understand the incredible and diverse nuances and complexities that make up European communities.”

Meta has a green light from data regulators in the EU to train its AI models using publicly shared content on social media. Source: Meta

“That means everything from dialects and colloquialisms, to hyper-local knowledge and the distinct ways different countries use humor and sarcasm on our products,” it added.

However, people’s private messages with friends, family and public data from EU account holders under the age of 18 are still off limits, according to Meta.

People can also opt out of having their data used for AI training through a form that Meta says will be sent in-app, via email and “easy to find, read, and use.”

EU regulators paused tech firms’ AI training plans

Last July, Meta delayed training its AI using public content across its platforms after privacy advocacy group None of Your Business filed complaints in 11 European countries, which saw the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) request a rollout pause until a review was conducted.

The complaints claimed Meta’s privacy policy changes would have allowed the company to use years of personal posts, private images, and online tracking data to train its AI products.  

Meta says it has now received permission from the EU’s data protection regulator, the European Data Protection Commission, that its AI training approach meets legal obligations, and the company continues to engage “constructively with the IDPC.”

“This is how we have been training our generative AI models for other regions since launch,” Meta said.

“We’re following the example set by others, including Google and OpenAI, both of which have already used data from European users to train their AI models.”

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An Irish data regulator opened a cross-border investigation into Google Ireland Limited last September to determine whether the tech giant followed EU data protection laws while developing its AI models.

X faced similar scrutiny and agreed to stop using personal data from users in the EU and European Economic Area last September. Previously, X used this data to train its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok. 

The EU launched its AI Act in August 2024, establishing a legal framework for the technology that included data quality, security and privacy provisions. 

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The governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, a small Pacific US territory just north of Guam, has killed the legislation that would have allowed one of the territory’s local governments to launch a fully backed US dollar-pegged stablecoin.

In an April 11 letter seen by Cointelegraph, Northern Mariana Islands Governor Arnold Palacios said he vetoed the bill as it “presents several legal issues and may be unconstitutional.”

Palacios’ letter said the bill, which largely dealt with issuing licenses to internet casinos, would regulate an activity that could not “be clearly restricted” to Tinian, a small island forming part of the territory that was hoping to launch a stablecoin.

Tinian, which has just over 2,000 residents and a largely tourism-based economy, is governed by the local government, the Municipality of Tinian and Aguiguan, one of four municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

In February, Republican Northern Marianas Senator Jude Hofschneider led the introduction of the bill to amend a local Tinian law to allow internet-only casino licenses, which tacked on a provision allowing the Tinian treasurer to issue, manage and redeem a “Tinian Stable Token.” 

The four-member Tinian delegation to the Marianas legislature passed the bill in a unanimous vote on March 12.

In vetoing the bill, Palacios didn’t comment on the proposed stablecoin, instead taking issue with its aim to police an industry that can cross jurisdictional boundaries, and said the measure lacked “robust enforcement measures to prevent illegal gaming activities.”

A highlighted excerpt of Governer Palacios’ letter noting his reasons for vetoing the stablecoin and internet gambling bill Source: Northern Mariana Islands Governor’s Office

Tinian misses chance at beating Wyoming

The bill’s passage could have seen Tinian’s government be the first US government entity to issue a stablecoin ahead of Wyoming, whose Governor Mark Gordon said in March that the state’s stablecoin could be ready for a launch in July.

The stablecoin was to be known as the Marianas US Dollar (MUSD), which was to be fully backed by cash and US Treasury bills held in reserve by the Tinian Municipal Treasury, according to statements shared with Cointelegraph last month.

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The Tinian local government chose tech services firm Marianas Rai Corporation, based in the Commonwealth’s capital of Saipan, to exclusively provide the infrastructure to issue and redeem MUSD and develop its ecosystem.

The token was slated to launch on the eCash blockchain, a network that rebranded from Bitcoin Cash ABC in 2021 and is a fork of Bitcoin Cash — a blockchain that split off from Bitcoin in 2017.

The launch of MUSD was meant to coincide with Google’s $1 billion plan announced in April to route fiber-optic subsea cables from the mainland US through Tinian and onto Japan to improve internet connectivity.

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