Coinbase Enters India as BlackRock IBIT Block Sale Rattles Bitcoin ETF Markets

Coinbase officially launched full India operations on June 1, 2026, enabling direct Indian rupee deposits and withdrawals via the country's Immediate Payment Service banking rails. The move eliminates the peer-to-peer workarounds that Indian retail traders have long relied on when accessing global crypto platforms. The Indian cryptocurrency market reached $3.04 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to $14.21 billion by 2034, according to consulting firm Imarc, making it one of the most strategically important expansions for any U.S.-listed exchange this year.

Alongside spot trading, Coinbase is offering perpetual futures contracts and a local INR order book, ensuring users trade against domestic liquidity rather than global prices. The platform's FIU-IND registration means it operates within India's compliance framework for virtual digital asset service providers. Chainalysis ranks India first in its Global Crypto Adoption Index, underscoring the scale of the opportunity Coinbase is moving to capture.

BlackRock IBIT Faces Its Largest Single Block Sale on Record

A separate story rattled the Bitcoin ETF market this week after a single off-exchange block trade worth $1.26 billion in BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) shares was executed on May 26. According to an analysis by crypto investment firm NYDIG, the seller accepted a 2.3% discount, or roughly $29.5 million in execution costs, signaling that speed and certainty took priority over maximizing the sale price. NYDIG rejected the popular basis-trade theory, pointing to the absence of any unusual spike in corresponding CME bitcoin futures volume at the time of execution.

The block sale did not occur in isolation. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows on every single trading day from May 15 through May 29, and total ETF assets fell from approximately $107.75 billion to $94.17 billion during that stretch, a drop of more than $13 billion in two weeks.

Bitcoin has now declined roughly 16% in 2026, while equities, commodities, and other asset classes have attracted stronger capital flows. NYDIG noted that the position exceeded the disclosed IBIT holdings of every investor that appeared in recent quarterly 13F filings, making it impossible through public data alone to identify who initiated the sale. The episode adds to a broader picture of institutional caution as Bitcoin spot ETFs closed May with $2.30 billion in net outflows, the largest monthly figure of 2026 and the steepest since November 2025.