FLOW Fallout, Perps Pause, ETF Watch, MERGE Week

Welcome to our Crypto news in 10, a daily podcast bringing you the latest news about crypto in under 10 minutes.

It’s Monday, March 16, 2026... Here’s your quick rundown.

We’re watching South Korea’s top exchanges pull the plug on FLOW trading after last month’s exploit. Coinbase is suspending 25 perpetual futures pairs this afternoon to concentrate liquidity. Bitwise’s new batch of single-asset crypto ETFs is hitting its targeted effective-date window. Reef’s bridge shutdown reaches a centralized-exchange deadline for token-swap support. And it’s a big institutional Web3 day in São Paulo as DeFi Technologies and Valour open their MERGE week symposium.

Let’s get into it.

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Story one... FLOW’s delist day in Korea.

Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone are ending FLOW spot trading today — timed a few weeks after Flow remediated an incident that briefly created duplicated tokens worth about 3.9 million dollars. The Flow Foundation says user funds weren’t compromised and the counterfeit tokens were burned, but the big Korean venues still chose to remove the pairs while legal proceedings play out in Seoul. One exception — Korbit is still supporting FLOW in Korea, and global exchanges like Coinbase and Binance continue listings outside the country. If you hold FLOW on a Korean exchange, check your withdrawal windows — final settlement mechanics can vary by platform on delist days.

Story two... Coinbase trims its perp lineup today.

Coinbase Markets says 25 perpetual futures contracts will be suspended around 1:00 p.m. UTC on Coinbase Advanced and Coinbase International Exchange — pairs like SUSHI-PERP, GMX-PERP, GRT-PERP, ARKM-PERP, and more. The company frames the cleanup as a move to prioritize liquidity and market quality — concentrate flow in the most actively traded products, rather than spreading depth thin across long tail markets. Coinbase’s own trading rules note a default 14-day lead time for perpetual delistings or suspensions, and today’s timing lines up with that. If you’re holding any of the affected contracts, keep an eye on final-settlement guidance from your venue to avoid unwanted liquidations.

Staying with derivatives for a moment... Coinbase has also been expanding its regulated futures footprint in Europe — rolling out BTC, SOL, and even an equity index product that blends the Mag 7 with crypto exposure. It’s all part of the broader institutional push to make hedging tools easier for European clients under clear rules.

Story three... today is circled on calendars for Bitwise’s 11 single-asset crypto ETFs.

The firm set a standard 75-day window from late December filings, which lands on March 16 for potential effectiveness. That doesn’t guarantee the funds start trading today — effectiveness depends on the SEC’s process — but it’s the first day the batch could go live if green-lit. The slate focuses on assets other than Bitcoin and Ether and is pitched as a way to give traditional brokerage accounts exposure to individual coins via a 1940 Act ETF wrapper and related derivatives. If you’re an advisor, keep an eye on your custodians’ tickers and bulletin notices this week in case any of these products switch on.

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Story four... Reef’s bridge is closed — and today’s the centralized-exchange deadline.

Reef unified its token by shutting the old Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain bridge, and gave centralized exchanges until March 16 to announce support for the native token swap. Translation: after today, venues that haven’t communicated support may restrict deposits of legacy contracts, and on-chain tools are being updated to remove references to the old ERC-20 and BEP-20 addresses. Reef says its 2026 roadmap shifts to the Deep Current upgrade and a tokenized-equity platform — so if you’re still parked in legacy REEF on a CEX, verify whether your exchange has posted a swap notice and any cutoff times for deposits or withdrawals.

Story five... institutions in focus in São Paulo.

DeFi Technologies and Valour are hosting an Insights Symposium today as a curtain-raiser to MERGE — one of Latin America’s larger crypto and fintech gatherings this week. Organizers expect more than five thousand attendees across the São Paulo program, with today’s curated track followed by an invite-only institutional session at Theatro Municipal on Tuesday, and the MERGE main event Wednesday through Thursday. The content mix leans into real-world assets, market infrastructure, and the interplay of AI with tokenization — exactly where allocators and regulators are spending time in 2026.

Quick context before we wrap... if you’re navigating today’s action — FLOW delistings in Korea, perp suspensions at Coinbase, potential ETF news — mind venue-specific timelines and disclosure pages. Policies for final settlement, forced position closures, or deposit blackouts can differ, even when the headlines sound similar.

Recap time... Korea’s top exchanges are delisting FLOW today after February’s exploit, while Coinbase pares back 25 perp pairs this afternoon to concentrate liquidity. Bitwise’s 11 single-asset ETFs hit their earliest possible effective-date window, Reef’s CEX deadline arrives for the native token swap after the bridge shutdown, and São Paulo’s MERGE week opens with an institutional-heavy symposium. We’ll keep watching for any late-day ETF effectiveness notices and exchange bulletins — and we’ll see you tomorrow with the follow-through.

Thanks for listening and see you tommorow!