Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.

In this issue:

• Crypto’s ‘Decentralized’ Illusion Shattered Again by Another AWS Meltdown
• Monad’s Fast EVM Chain Promises ‘Night and Day’ Performance Gains
• Quantum Computing Is ‘Biggest Risk to Bitcoin,’ Says Coin Metrics Co-Founder
• Securitize Unveils MCP Server to Power AI Access to Onchain Assets

Network News

AWS OUTAGE REACHES CRYPTO INDUSTRY: On the morning of Oct. 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a major outage that cascaded into widespread service disruptions across thousands of websites and applications. Several large exchanges and crypto-service…