Coinbase to Suspend FORTH Trading on November 23 as Treasury Distribution Plan Emerges
Key Facts
Coinbase said it will suspend trading in Ampleforth's governance token FORTH on November 23, 2026, at around 2 p.m. U.S. Eastern time, following recent reviews of assets' compliance with its listing standards. The announcement comes as the Ampleforth governance forum discusses a plan to wind down the FORTH decentralized autonomous organization and distribute its treasury assets to token holders. Coinbase said its decision was based on "recent reviews" as part of its monitoring of listed assets' compliance with its standards. The suspension covers Coinbase's website, including Simple and Advanced Trade, as well as Coinbase Exchange and Coinbase Prime. The platform moved the FORTH order book to "limit-only" mode ahead of the announced suspension. This mode allows limit orders to be placed and canceled, and matching orders to be executed. Coinbase confirmed that token balances will remain accessible to holders, with withdrawals continuing to be available.
Against the backdrop of the decision, the organization's treasury statement dated October 14, 2026, listed a balance of 2,538,734.86 USDC in the post outlining the proposed wind-down steps. The plan proposes distributing USDC through the Merkl platform as the designated mechanism for distribution to token holders. The proposal stipulates that FORTH tokens controlled by the treasury would be excluded from any allocation in that distribution. It also proposes burning FORTH tokens held by the organization alongside the asset distribution process. The proposed framework thus combines a USDC distribution, exclusion of treasury holdings from allocations and the burning of the organization's tokens. These measures appear as proposed steps in the organization's wind-down plan published on the governance forum.
The wind-down plan followed a dispute over governance proposals that the Fragments team said were malicious during the governance incident in September. The team said one of them would have authorized spending of 3.5 million USDC and 3.5 million FORTH. The same proposal also included transferring control of the AMPL protocol's monetary policy to an unknown external address, alongside the spending powers. But the team confirmed that both proposals had been canceled and that the organization had avoided the risk of their execution, saying: "The proposer of the first proposal canceled their proposal, and Fragments canceled the second proposal." In an update on administrative arrangements, the team said the Kennel Club multisig wallet had accepted administration of the timelock contract. It confirmed that the two-day security delay remained in effect for transfers of treasury assets and changes to administered contracts after the administrative handover.
The proposed wind-down also extends to the Spot project, with the plan attributing the decision to shut it down to a failure to achieve "product-market fit." This part of the plan covers SPOT, stAMPL and the Bill Broker service. At the same time, the proposal provides for continued support for redemptions through the app until further notice. As for the AMPL protocol, Brandon confirmed in the discussion of the plan that it would continue despite the move to wind down the organization and Spot. In his response on the governance forum, he said: "But AMPL is still here," clarifying the protocol's fate within the proposed wind-down process.
The next scheduled step in the distribution plan is a snapshot of FORTH balances on December 1, 2026, at 00:00 UTC, after Coinbase's announced trading suspension date. The proposal stipulates that tokens held off-chain must be moved on-chain before the snapshot to be included in the balance calculation. Brandon defended the choice of a future date, explaining that it would allow holders to move these holdings to on-chain wallets before the snapshot. The groups he cited include liquidity providers and holders of unclaimed FORTH rewards. He said: "These users need advance notice so they can move them on-chain first." The plan proposes a 3-month claim period starting on the snapshot date to distribute assets according to eligible balances. After the deadline, the post proposes transferring unclaimed assets to AMPL liquidity.