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

By: rootdata|2026/03/16 10:16:57

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.

WEEX Labs lands in Amsterdam for Dutch Blockchain Week with Agentic Day: The AI Infrastructure Economy — featuring a Cointelegraph exclusive interview with Waqar Zaka, a live AI trading competition (no code required, just natural language), and a keynote from WEEX COO Andrew Weiner. June 22. Register now: https://luma.com/lo977l6h

SK Hynix Reportedly Plans U.S. ADR Listing as Early as August, With SEC Approval Possible in Late June

SK Hynix may pursue a U.S. ADR listing as early as August, with SEC approval reportedly possible in late June amid strong AI chip supply chain demand.

SpaceX vs Tesla vs xAI: Which Elon Musk Trade Has the Biggest Upside in 2026?

SpaceX's IPO is days away, Tesla holds over 11,000 BTC, and xAI is betting big on AI. Here's how traders are comparing the three biggest Musk narratives.

OpenAI Reveals It Has Confidentially Submitted an S-1 to the SEC, Keeping the Door Open for a Future IPO

On June 9, according to an OpenAI announcement, the company recently confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), beginning the preliminary compliance process for a potential initial public offering. OpenAI said it chose to disclose this proactively because it expected the news might leak; however, the company has not yet set a specific listing timeline, and related arrangements may still take some time.

Latest research from 13 top universities including Cornell University: The current state, challenges, and misconceptions of the fusion of Crypto and AI

The combination of AI and crypto is still in its early stages, with both serving as complementary "middleware": AI translates human intentions into executable programs, while cryptographic technology provides verifiable and tamper-proof guarantees for computational processes and results. In the dire...

Deconstructing Anthropic: The Best AI Company, Possibly Also a Type of Organizational Invention

Instead of competing with ambition, focusing on restraint, how does Anthropic leverage extreme strategic focus and an "counterintuitive" geek culture to counterattack OpenAI on the AI battlefield?

Apollo and Blackstone Reportedly Back $35 Billion Anthropic Chip Financing as Deal Details Remain Unclear

On June 9, according to currently available news alerts, Apollo and Blackstone Group participated in a $35 billion financing for an Anthropic “chip project.” Based on the original wording of the report, the funding has already been raised, but public information remains limited. The financing structure, use of proceeds, project entity, and whether Apollo and Blackstone participated through equity, debt, or project financing have not yet been disclosed.

Humanity Protocol Security Incident Escalates: More Than $31 Million Stolen From Related Addresses as Attacker Continues Selling H for ETH

On June 9, according to monitoring by Onchain Lens, more than $31 million has been stolen from addresses linked to Humanity Protocol, and the attack is still ongoing, with the hacker continuously swapping H tokens for ETH. Project founder Terence Kwok later confirmed the security incident on X, saying the issue involved a private key leak.

Bloomberg: As Bitcoin Weakens, Stablecoins and RWA Continue to Drive Expansion in Crypto Businesses

In June, Bloomberg reported that despite Bitcoin falling below $60,000 last week, wiping out about $235 billion in market value within seven days, and dropping close to 50% from last year’s peak, some core businesses in the crypto industry are still expanding, mainly in stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization (RWA), payments, and infrastructure. The report also noted that overall altcoin activity has contracted significantly: altcoin market capitalization has fallen from a peak of about $431 billion in November 2021 to around $170 billion, and among the tens of millions of tokens issued in recent years, fewer than 1,700 still maintain meaningful trading activity.

Galaxy Deep Research Report: How Hyperliquid's HIP-4 Upgrade Changes the Landscape of Prediction Markets?

The platform that wins this competition will be the one whose execution layer is the hardest to replicate, whose builder ecosystem delivers the fastest, and whose regulatory path is the most open.