Coinbase Delisting on August 26: Ten Perpetual Futures to Be Settled Automatically

Coinbase is withdrawing ten perpetual futures from trading on August 26, 2026. The affected contracts are Memecoin ( $MEME ), The Sandbox ( $SAND ), Moonbirds (BIRB), Blur ( $BLUR ), Katana (KAT), SPX6900 ( $SPX ), Zora (ZORA), Axie Infinity ( $AXS ), Gensyn (AI) and LayerZero ( $ZRO ). Traders who leave positions open will not sell them manually: Coinbase will settle those positions automatically at an average price calculated from the final hour of trading. Closing a position yourself gives you control over the execution price; waiting until delisting means the exchange assigns the settlement price.

The delisting is part of a broader series. In June, Coinbase ended six perpetual futures in the same way, and nine more are scheduled for September 3. The process is therefore not an isolated event, but a recurring part of the exchange’s product maintenance and a reminder that even active derivatives products can be retired without the underlying token disappearing from the market.

Coinbase Delisting on August 26: These Ten Perpetual Futures Are Affected

According to the announcement, which has been reproduced consistently by several industry outlets, trading will end in ten perpetual contracts. All of them are smaller assets from the gaming, NFT, memecoin and infrastructure sectors. The contracts are listed in Coinbase’s notation as $MEME-PERP, $SAND-PERP, BIRB-PERP, $BLUR-PERP, KAT-PERP, $SPX-PERP, ZORA-PERP, $AXS-PERP, AI-PERP and $ZRO-PERP.

Liquidity as the Main Criterion

The common factor is liquidity. Coinbase says such decisions are based on an ongoing review of trading volume, market quality and regulatory requirements. A contract with little trading activity is costly for an exchange and risky for users: bid-ask spreads widen, and larger orders can move the price against the trader.

For context, the delisting applies to the futures contracts, not to the underlying coins. That distinction matters because a derivatives delisting can affect only one trading venue and one product type, while the spot asset may continue to trade elsewhere.

What a Perpetual Future Is

A perpetual future, or perp, is a futures contract without an expiration date. It allows traders to speculate on the price of an underlying asset without owning that asset. A traditional future expires on a fixed date and is settled then; a perp is designed to continue indefinitely.

To keep a perpetual contract aligned with the spot market, exchanges use a funding rate. This is a periodic payment between long and short positions that helps move the contract price toward the index price. If the perp trades above the index, long positions pay short positions; if it trades below, the flow reverses.

The index price is a reference price for the underlying asset, built from data across several trading venues. It serves as the bridge between the derivatives market and the spot market and, in this case, is also the basis for settlement after delisting.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a perp uses leverage, which magnifies price moves in both directions. Second, the outcome depends not only on price movement, but also on ongoing funding payments, which can become a meaningful cost over time.

How Coinbase Settles Open Positions

When a perpetual future is delisted, there is no buyer to whom the position can simply be transferred. Instead, the exchange closes the contract and credits or debits the account based on the calculated value. Coinbase says that all positions still open after trading is suspended will be settled automatically.

That is materially different from selling the position yourself. In a normal sale, traders choose the timing and order type, and can use limit orders if they prefer. In a forced settlement, those options disappear. Once trading ends, the price is fixed and the result becomes known only afterward.

Why an Open Limit Order Is Not Enough

An unfilled limit order does not protect a position. If nobody trades on the other side, the order simply remains in the book and expires when the contract does. Only an executed order closes the position.

Liquidity often thins in the hours before delisting because market makers step back as well. A limit that was realistic earlier may no longer be reachable later.

In earlier rounds, Coinbase also reserved the right to suspend trading early and to set the final settlement price at a level it deems appropriate. Traders who wait until the last minute are therefore relying on a moment that the exchange is allowed to move.

Why the Final 60 Minutes Matter

The settlement price is not the last traded price and not a closing price. It is the average index price of the 60 minutes immediately before trading is suspended.

This design has an important advantage: an hour-long average is harder to manipulate than a single price print. That matters especially for thinly traded contracts, where a closing price could be easier to influence.

The downside is that the average also smooths out favorable price moves. If the underlying rises sharply in the final half hour, traders receive only part of that move in the settlement calculation. As a result, the forced settlement price is usually not the same as the market price displayed when trading stops.

For that reason, traders who want to control the outcome typically close far before the cutoff rather than during the final hour, because that is the period used to determine the settlement value for everyone else.

Funding Rate Set to Zero for the Final Period

One detail that is often overlooked is that the funding rate for the last payment period is set to zero. That means no funding payments will be exchanged between long and short positions in the final period before delisting.

This benefits the side that would otherwise have paid funding, and it removes a source of inflow for the other side. More importantly, it removes an incentive to keep the contract price close to the index in the closing phase. As a result, the perp may diverge more from the index in the final hours than it otherwise would.

Because settlement still depends on the index price, traders who remain active near the end are trading against a price that will not determine the final result directly.

The Reported Time Differs: 13:00 UTC or 21:00

The reports do not fully agree on the exact time of day. Some cite “around 21:00 on August 26,” while others give 13:00 UTC. Both figures originate from the same announcement.

The most likely explanation is a time-zone difference: 21:00 in East Asia corresponds to 13:00 UTC. The schedule for nearby rounds supports that interpretation. The June round with six contracts ended at around 13:00 UTC, and 13:00 UTC is also given for the September round.

That said, the available sources document the date, not the exact minute. The practical point is straightforward: traders should rely on the notice in their own account and any direct communication from the provider, not on a news report’s time stamp.

Coinbase Futures in Europe, Including Germany

This is not only a U.S. issue. In spring 2026, Coinbase expanded its futures offering to users of Coinbase Advanced in 26 European countries, including Germany. Coinbase announced the expansion in its own post, “Futures Contracts Now Available on Coinbase in Europe,” and trade media reported it independently.

MiFID, Not MiCA

The service is operated by a European company authorized by the Cypriot securities regulator CySEC, with that authorization extending across the European Economic Area through the MiFID II passport. The key legal point is that these contracts are financial instruments under MiFID and therefore do not fall under the EU crypto framework MiCA.

Whether any of the ten contracts was available in a specific account cannot be verified from outside. Product availability can vary by country, account type and activation status.

What the Delisting Does Not Mean for the Coins

The delisting concerns the perpetual contracts only. It does not mean that the underlying token disappears from Coinbase or from other exchanges, and it does not affect assets held in a personal wallet.

Anyone holding $SAND, $AXS or $BLUR in spot form does not need to act because of this announcement. Spot delistings are different, because they can include separate withdrawal deadlines after trading ends.

A separate issue is also worth noting: The Sandbox experienced a cross-chain bridge incident in August, after which the project shut down bridges to two networks. No connection between that event and Coinbase’s delisting decision has been documented in the available sources.

Tax Treatment for German Investors

For German investors, the tax classification of a perp is different from that of a purchased coin and is often misunderstood.

A forward transaction is a contract in which the gain results from a cash settlement or from the value of a variable reference figure, rather than from ownership of an asset. Under section 20 subsection 2 sentence 1 number 3 of the German Income Tax Act, gains from forward transactions that result in a cash settlement or an amount of money or benefit determined by the value of a variable reference figure are treated as income from capital assets.

Three consequences follow. First, the separate tax rate for investment income under section 32d applies instead of the taxpayer’s personal rate. Second, there is no one-year holding period, unlike the private holding-period exemption often associated with Bitcoin and Ethereum. Third, forced settlement is treated for tax purposes like a closing of the position, because the relevant point is the end of the transaction, not why it ended.

Annex KAP When There Is No Domestic Paying Agent

If the provider has no domestic paying agent, tax is not withheld automatically. The income must then be reported in Annex KAP of the German tax return, and the taxpayer must provide evidence.

A clean transaction history is essential. The same applies to the documentation of the settlement itself.

Loss Offset Rules for Forward Transactions

Forced settlements often affect positions that are already in the red, since profitable positions are usually closed voluntarily. That makes loss treatment important.

cryptoticker.io says it compiled the following analysis on August 26, 2026. It retrieved the official full text of section 20 of the German Income Tax Act from gesetze-im-internet.de, confirmed an HTTP 200 response, and reviewed subsection 6 sentence by sentence in the version published that day.

The result: subsection 6 contains five sentences. Sentence 1 bars offsetting losses from capital assets against other categories of income. Sentence 2 permits carry-forward into later years within investment income. Sentence 4 restricts share losses to share gains. Sentence 5 requires a loss certificate for offsetting. A separate offsetting regime for forward transactions no longer appears in the provision, and the former cap is not present anywhere in the section.

This matches the legal position described by tax portals since the 2024 Annual Tax Act: the separate loss-offsetting circle for forward transactions, with its annual 20,000-euro limit, was abolished retroactively and for all open cases. Since then, losses from a perp have been offset against investment income generally, not only against gains of the same kind.

This analysis is limited to the wording of the law. It does not show how an individual provider applies the rule in annual tax statements, and it is not a substitute for personal tax advice.

Not the First Time Coinbase Has Done This

On June 24, 2026, Coinbase ended six perpetual contracts: Spark (SPK), Zama (ZAMA), Gunz (GUN), Turbo (TURBO), Moo Deng (MOODENG) and Nomina (NOM). The procedure was the same. Open positions were settled automatically when trading was suspended, and the settlement price was based on the average index price over the prior 60 minutes.

The repetition matters. If an exchange applies the same process more than once in a quarter, it is a routine part of the product lifecycle. Traders in smaller perpetual futures should therefore assume delisting is possible at any time.

The Next Round Is Set for September 3

The next date is already known. On September 3, 2026, at 13:00 UTC according to the available reports, Coinbase is withdrawing nine more perpetual futures: Espresso (ESP), DoubleZero (2Z), RedStone (RED), Aevo (AEVO), Aethir (ATH), Kaspa (KAS), Sky (SKY), Popcat ( $POPCAT ) and Brett (BRETT).

Anyone with exposure in one of those contracts still has time to act before the cutoff. As with the August round, the time shown in the user’s own account is the one that matters most.

How to Read a Delisting Notice

Delisting notices can look similar while meaning very different things. Four points help distinguish a routine announcement from one with a hard deadline.

First, identify what is ending. Is it only trading, or is the ability to withdraw also ending? With a derivative, there is nothing to withdraw; the position is settled in cash. With a spot delisting, a separate withdrawal deadline may continue after trading ends.

Second, look for intermediate stages. Some exchanges switch a market into reduce-only mode before the end, which can prevent traders from building or adjusting hedges.

Third, check the price rule. Does the notice use an averaging window, a closing price, or a discretionary final price set by the exchange? That determines how much control remains.

Fourth, verify the scope. Does the measure affect the coin itself or only one product tied to it? That distinction is frequently lost in headlines.

What Traders Should Check Now

The first step is to review the contract list in the derivatives account, not just the headline. If one of the ten positions is open, it should be closed well before the deadline, because the settlement price is formed during the final hour.

The second step is to verify the provider’s authorization. In Europe, derivatives are offered under a securities authorization pursuant to MiFID, while spot trading falls under MiCA. Those are different regimes, with different oversight.

The third step is to download and save the settlement documents and account statement while the contract is still accessible. Gains and losses from forward transactions belong in Annex KAP, and without records they may have to be estimated.

(As of August 26, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures can change; check the provider’s terms before trading.)