Why the Internet Crash Made Bitcoin Look Stronger

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Business, Investing

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A massive AWS outage took down huge portions of the internet this week, and crypto wasn’t spared — Coinbase’s Base network went offline, MetaMask users saw zero balances, and much of the industry’s infrastructure stumbled. On today’s Breakdown, NLW explores what the event revealed about crypto’s dependence on centralized services, why Bitcoin and Ethereum’s uptime tell a different story, and how it’s fueling renewed debate about decentralization just as regulators and institutions weigh the next phase of the market. Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast: https://pod.link/1438693620 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBreakdownBW Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thebreakdown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8 Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownBW

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:09.3	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big-picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:18.4	What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, October 21st, and today we're talking about the crypto
0:23.0	fallout of the AWS outage. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown,
0:27.5	please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into
0:30.9	the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes
0:34.6	or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Well, I'm sure that you know this by now, but on Monday morning, Amazon Web Services suffered a
0:41.3	major outage that took down half the internet and also toppled a significant portion of the
0:45.9	crypto ecosystem. Coinbase's base network went down, as did the centralized exchange.
0:51.0	Metamask was also impacted with many traders logging in to see a zero balance and
0:55.2	thus having a small heart attack. The event, of course, revealed a core issue with using crypto as a
0:59.6	replacement financial network with the current state of infrastructure. Tim Copeland of the block
1:04.0	posted, right, so I can't pay with my Meta Mask card because the decentralized side of it
1:08.5	ain't working due to AWS. I see.
1:11.4	Alcoin Psycho wrote, got to love seeing 95% of crypto down because of an AWS outage.
1:15.9	Very decentralized. Great work, lads. Max Lee, the CEO of Decentralized Cloud Platform
1:20.6	Urt, called this event a wake-up call for the industry. He said, this highlights why
1:25.5	decentralized solutions are essential. Decentralized cloud computing
1:28.6	offers a powerful alternative by distributing data and processing across a network, reducing
1:32.6	the risk of single points of failure that can lead to complete service disruptions.
1:36.3	Bitcoin, of course, didn't miss a block, maintaining its 99.9% uptime reputation.
1:40.9	While this wasn't the doomsday scenario that some Bitcoiners planned for, it still was
	...

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