This Week's Key News Preview | The Federal Reserve Announces New Interest Rate Decision; The U.S. Releases February PPI Data

Organized by: Jerry, ChainCatcher

Key News:

• Coinbase will suspend trading of 25 perpetual contracts including MET, REZ, BABY on March 16
• Binance will launch EWYUSDT index perpetual contract on March 16
• Binance Wallet's seventh Prime Sale Pre-TGE will launch Katana (KAT), subscription opens on March 16
• The U.S. will announce February PPI data on March 18
• The Federal Reserve will announce the new interest rate decision on March 19

March 16 (Monday)

Coinbase will suspend trading of 25 perpetual contracts including MET, REZ, BABY on March 16

According to Coinbase Markets, Coinbase will suspend trading of 25 perpetual contracts around 13:00 UTC on March 16 on the Coinbase Advanced and Coinbase International Exchange platforms, including MET-PERP, REZ-PERP, BABY-PERP, SUPER-PERP, SUSHI-PERP, GMX-PERP, ERA-PERP, XAN-PERP, VINE-PERP, T-PERP, YB-PERP, WCT-PERP, HOME-PERP, NOT-PERP, MINA-PERP, CATI-PERP, DOGS-PERP, COW-PERP, GRT-PERP, DRIFT-PERP, COOKIE-PERP, ARKM-PERP, B3-PERP, SXT-PERP, and BB-PERP.

The announcement states that at the time of suspension, all remaining open positions will be automatically settled. The final settlement price will be calculated based on the average index price over the 60 minutes prior to the trading suspension, and the funding rate for the last funding rate period will be set to zero.

Binance will launch EWYUSDT index perpetual contract on March 16

According to the official announcement, Binance will launch the EWYUSDT index perpetual contract on March 16, 2026, at 21:30 (UTC+8), with a maximum leverage of up to 10 times.

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF tracks the market capitalization weighted index of large and mid-sized stocks in South Korea (NYSE Arca: EWY).

Upbit will delist Loopring (LRC) on March 16

UPBIT will terminate trading support for Loopring (LRC) at 15:00 on March 16, 2026, with the affected trading pair being LRC/BTC. Users are advised that after trading support ends, any unfulfilled orders will be canceled, and related services will no longer be provided.

Binance Wallet's seventh Prime Sale Pre-TGE will launch Katana (KAT), subscription opens on March 16

According to Binance Wallet's official news, the seventh Prime Sale Pre-TGE event will be launched, featuring the project Katana (KAT). The subscription window will be from 20:00 to 22:00 (UTC+8) on March 16, 2026, lasting for 2 hours.

POAP will enter maintenance mode starting March 16, no longer actively developed

The blockchain attendance proof protocol POAP announced that it will enter maintenance mode starting March 16, 2026, stopping new issuers from joining, but existing issuers, integrations, and collection tools will continue to operate.

POAP co-founder Isabel Gonzalez stated that the platform successfully found its niche in the crypto-native community but failed to break out of the niche to achieve larger-scale expansion. The platform began charging commercial clients in 2023 to sustain operations but still could not support further development.

Since its first issuance at the ETHDenver hackathon in 2019, POAP has minted over 6.7 million tokens, attracting more than 37,000 issuers, with brands like Adidas and Porsche also participating. The team is currently focused on building an open digital collectible standard to provide a more sustainable infrastructure for community event records and participation verification.

March 17 (Tuesday)

Binance contracts will delist multiple perpetual contracts including VFY, 1000WHY, ALGO, ATOM on March 17-18

Binance contracts will delist VFYUSDT, 1000WHYUSDT, and BDXNUSDT U-based perpetual contracts at 17:00 on March 17, 2026, and will delist ALGOUSD, SANDUSD, ENSUSD, and ATOMUSD coin-based perpetual contracts at 17:00 on March 18, 2026. Users are advised to close positions before trading stops to avoid automatic liquidation.

March 18 (Wednesday)

The U.S. will announce February PPI data on March 18

On March 18 (Wednesday) at 20:30, the U.S. will announce the February PPI year-on-year rate and the month-on-month rate.

Noble will officially launch EVM Layer 1 mainnet based on Commonware architecture on March 18

The Cosmos application chain Noble, focused on stablecoins, announced it will migrate from the Cosmos ecosystem to an independent EVM Layer 1 network, scheduled to launch on March 18. Noble stated that this move aims to leverage the Commonware tech stack written in Rust and the Reth Ethereum client to enhance performance and gain broader support from AI and crypto developers.

Since 2023, Noble has processed over 22 billion token transactions, with 30,000 monthly active users. Its native stablecoin Noble Dollar (USDN) will become a core feature of the new EVM chain, supporting profit distribution to users. During the transition, the team will continue to support Cosmos-based blockchains to ensure existing IBC connections are unaffected, with the ultimate goal of migrating all liquidity to Noble EVM.

March 19 (Thursday)

The Federal Reserve will announce the new interest rate decision on March 19

On March 19 (Thursday) at 02:00, the Federal Reserve FOMC will announce the interest rate decision and economic outlook summary; subsequently, at 02:30, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell will hold a monetary policy press conference.

March 20 (Friday)

Binance will support NIL (Nillion) ERC20 network integration on March 20 and stop mainnet support

Binance will suspend Nillion (NIL) token deposits and withdrawals on its mainnet at 11:00 on March 20, 2026, and will support its integration on the Ethereum (ERC20) network.

After the network integration is completed, Binance will announce the opening time for ERC20 NIL token deposits and withdrawals, and support for NIL mainnet token deposits and withdrawals will no longer be available. During the suspension period, NIL spot trading, margin trading, and contract trading services will remain unaffected.