Crypto Currents: AWS outage impacts centralized exchanges

An outage at Amazon Web Services impacts crypto trading platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood while Strategy adds to its substantial bitcoin stash. Meanwhile, details regarding the upcoming Federal Reserve payments conference featuring crypto leaders are outlined. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents,” daily from The Fly. Join us 2 PM daily for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel for the Crypto Fly By weekly recap.

AMAZON AWS OUTAGE HITS COINBASE, ROBINHOOD APPS: An outage at Amazon (AMZN) Web Services, or AWS, caused disruptions for several crypto trading platforms Monday morning, Cointelegraph reports. The Coinbase (COIN) mobile app went offline, and trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) also experienced issues, highlighting the underlying infrastructure dependencies of centralized crypto services. While services appear to be restoring, the incident underscores the operational risks associated with reliance on major cloud providers.

STRATEGY BITCOIN HOLDINGS TOP 640K AFTER LATEST PURCHASE: Strategy (MSTR), continuing its aggressive bitcoin (BTC-USD) accumulation, has bought the dip, expanding its total holdings to 640,418 BTC, according to company filings. This comes as executive Chairman Michael Saylor highlighted the yield gap between the company’s preferred stock offerings and other assets, potentially signaling further bitcoin acquisitions, as CoinDesk reported.

FEDERAL RESERVE PAYMENTS CONFERENCE TO INCLUDE CRYPTO EXECUTIVES: The Federal Reserve is set to host its “Payments Innovation Conference” on October 21st in Washington D.C., marking a significant dialogue between the central bank and the cryptocurrency industry, according to Crypto.News. The event aims to explore the changing financial landscape, focusing on bridging traditional finance with digital assets, stablecoins, AI in payments, and tokenized products.. Panelists include executives from prominent firms such as Chainlink, Circle (CRCL), Paxos, Ark Invest, Coinbase, Google (GOOGL), Franklin Templeton (BEN), BlackRock (BLK), and JPMorgan (JPM). The discussions, livestreamed on the Fed’s website and YouTube channel, could influence investor confidence and expectations around regulation and institutional involvement. This comes as bitcoin mining profitability saw a decline of over 7% in September, according to an analyst research report from investment bank Jefferies (JEF). Separately, executives of crypto-centered companies will also meet with Senate Democrats this week to discuss potential decentralized finance reforms, as reported by Analytics Insight.

BNB, XRP GAIN AMID ETF OUTFLOWS; CITI SEES STABLECOIN GROWTH: Despite recent market volatility leading to significant outflows from crypto ETPs, several assets showed movement. CoinDesk reports that BNB (BNB-USD) climbed, potentially boosted by speculation about shifts in Federal Reserve policy. Cointelegraph notes that ripple (XRP-USD) saw whale wallet counts hit new highs, while CoinDesk highlights a significant surge in chainlink (LINK-USD). Ether (ETH-USD) also reclaimed the $4,000 level amid the broader market rebound. Citigroup (C) noted in a research report on Friday, that analysts at the firm see stablecoins as a key driver for crypto’s next growth phase.

PRICE ACTION: As of the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $111,425.78, while ether is trading at $4,029.69, according to price data from CoinDesk.