In Friday’s announcement, Coinbase delisted 25 perpetual futures contracts, but the pattern is sector-driven rather than random. The exchange closed all open positions using the average index price over the 60 minutes prior to the suspension, eliminating exposure to clusters of tokens concentrated in high-volatility stories.
Coinbase’s massive derivatives cleanup: Who got cut?
Many of the affected contracts are in the AI and data economy sectors. IO, GRASS, PROVE, and PROMPT are all connected to distributed computing, data labeling, and AI infrastructure. These tokens did well in the 2025 AI rally thanks to speculation, but the liquidity of derivatives has faded as capital has moved into larger caps.
Another visible block comes from DePIN and the role of infrastructure. HNT is about distributed wireless networks and AR is about persistent data storage. Both sectors are still active, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of open interest in the market over time.
Exposure to games and memes also decreases. HMSTR, DEGEN, MEW, and GIGA are high-beta community or game-driven categories where derivative trading volumes tend to spike and decay temporarily. Exchanges typically revalue these contracts when funding activity decreases.
As notified, we will permanently suspend the following futures trading. The remaining open positions will be automatically closed using the stated final settlement.
• Edge Purp – $0.092411 $USDC
• Prompt PERP – $0.04328 $USDC
• 1000SATS-PERP – $0.000011 $USDC…— Coinbase Markets 🛡️ (@CoinbaseMarkets) February 20, 2026
Layer 2 and modular ecosystem tokens were also affected. BLAST, DYM, ZETA, Layer, and MANTLE reflect the story of scaling and interoperability. As these ecosystems continue to grow, perpetual pairs did not meet Coinbase’s liquidity requirements.
Finally, smaller infrastructure names such as FLOW, CRO, CGLD, and RSR have been removed. This shows that even well-known brands need to demonstrate that there is sufficient demand for their derivatives, even if they do not have a strong spot presence.
The change suggests that Coinbase is focusing its derivatives business on long-term, institutional-involved contracts rather than short-term news-driven rallies. In terms of sectors, the exchange has reduced its exposure to AI microcaps, DePIN infrastructure, gaming memes, and some L2 ecosystems, while maintaining a strong presence in larger, consistently traded markets.
