Ethereum NFT holders were hit by recent AWS outages, with the blockchain unable to load tokenized data. This has raised questions about the role of increasing centralization in modern crypto.
To put it bluntly, it’s hard to claim someone is an NFT “owner” when third-party technical issues can block access. This issue could encourage a shift to other blockchains or further decline in the NFT sector.
Ethereum NFT glitches
Yesterday’s AWS outage wreaked havoc across the Internet and disrupted digital infrastructure worldwide. The ongoing issues also highlighted concerns in the crypto industry, as Coinbase’s key features experienced continued outages.
However, another worrying development was AWS taking NFTs on Ethereum offline.
When Amazon AWS crashed, half of the cryptocurrency was destroyed and most of the internet.
Coinbase, L2s, some ETH nodes, NFT jpegs.
When you buy an NFT on ETH, it is stored on a server that can go offline. When you buy an ordinal number on BTC, it is stored on the Bitcoin network. Big difference. pic.twitter.com/YqfXXpp3Tf
— Duo Nine ⚡ YCC (@DU09BTC) October 21, 2025
Thanks to its crucial role in the DeFi infrastructure, Ethereum has long been the unquestionable home of NFT projects. Apparently, however, this product sector is not yet so decentralized.
This AWS outage has shown that isolated third-party technical issues can cause major setbacks for some of the biggest pillars of the crypto economy.
Some community members have suggested that Ordinals, a Bitcoin-based NFT system, could take over some of Ethereum’s share of this market. But even that could be a wrong assumption.
Who owns your assets?
Demand for NFTs is declining across the board, and some of the biggest recent developments in the sector involve publicity stunts and international crime.
The “sales pitch” of NFTs is that a user can use blockchain technology to truly own digital assets, by encrypting art and other IP on a decentralized system.
If this principle is incorrect, it could lead to a further decline in demand. How can you ‘own’ an Ethereum NFT when external factors can completely disable your access?
NFTs are great because you apparently ‘own’ them, but the AWS outage yesterday took out all the monkeys lol
— onion person (@junlper.beer) 21-10-2025T12:51:59.435Z
Additionally, security experts fear that more AWS outages will continue in the coming days. If Ethereum NFTs continue to go offline like this, it seems like a bad omen for the entire industry.
We have to monitor the situation and determine whether Ordinals will take over their market share or if the market will simply shrink altogether.
The post Amazon’s AWS Outage Exposes Major Vulnerability in Ethereum NFTs appeared first on BeInCrypto.
