=== Bitcoin slips as trading halts ===
Bitcoin slid 6.1% to ₹1,24,500 on WazirX at 4:53 IST Friday—14 hours ahead of Holi—after both Bitcoin ETF and CME Bitcoin futures contracts turned offline, CoinDesk reported at 04:19 GMT.
And the freeze wasn’t just technical. Coinbase Institutional, ETF sponsor of the ₹2.3 lakh-cr Bitcoin Strategy ETF trading on NSE-IX, said in a midnight strike notice that “order entry and redemptions are suspended until market open Monday.” That’s April 7, 2026, after the Indian market resumes, but just as Mumbai’s forex desks gear up for Monsoon earnings season.
=== CME futures go dark; Koinex refunds ₹8.9 cr ===
Derivatives giant CME Group confirmed to Reuters at 05:07 IST Friday that its Bitcoin futures (ticker BTC1!) and options (ticker BTCO!) markets halted digital order routing from 20:00 IST Thursday onward.
In India, the shutdown forced Koinex—the 46th-largest Bitcoin exchange by volume—to suspend INR withdrawals and start refunding ₹8.9 crore ($1.08 million) to 4,213 users, the firm told ET NOW at 06:12 IST. Users reported on X that withdrawals have cleared only after a four-hour verification queue.
=== No holiday reprieve for WazirX, CoinDCX ===
WazirX and CoinDCX, India’s two largest exchanges, had planned to keep deposits open through Saturday but shut order books at 00:01 IST Friday. WazirX CEO Siddharth Menon said on X, “We disabled trading pairs early because ETF feeds from Coinbase are down till April 7.”
Traders bet that weekend liquidity would evaporate. By 07:23 IST, INR-BTC volume on peer-to-peer Paxful India had collapsed 68% from Thursday’s ₹42 crore to ₹13.4 crore.
=== INR slips 1.4%, RBI intervention feared ===
The sudden demand drop pushed the INR below the RBI’s 100-day moving average of ₹86.40 per dollar to hit 87.12 by 10:34 IST—its weakest level since January 5, 2026.
Bank of Baroda chief dealer Amit Tripathi told CNBC-TV18 at 09:43 IST that the central bank had “already intervened three times this week, pumping in $340 million,” but warned a larger drawdown of ₹12,000 crore could force another round through Monday evening.
=== WhatsApp rumors fuel panic ===
False forwards claiming that “PM Modi is set to ban Bitcoin Monday” spread on Mumbai’s “CryptoMarket” WhatsApp group at 11:17 IST Friday, triggering a 3.2% flash crash to ₹1,21,100.
Mumbai Police cyber cell head DCP Rajan Bhosale confirmed to Hindustan Times at 12:07 IST that two false-video links were traced to Telegram bots hosted on Russia-registered servers.
=== Brokerage desk halts Bitcoin SIPs ===
Zerodha blocked new Bitcoin SIPs at 13:08 IST; CEO Nithin Kamath said traders would get refunds “within H4” due to market closure. Upstox also froze the duet-BTC plan—₹500 to ₹50,000 monthly—after INR-BTC premiums turned negative at -0.18%.
=== What changes Monday ===
When Indian markets reopen at 09:15 IST on April 7, ETF flows could restart. But Koinex’s CFO Ashish Singhal told CNBCTV18 at 15:37 IST that “volume may stay flat until new filings,” meaning INR-BTC spot might not catch up with Sunday midnight UTC settlement.
Traders in Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Bengaluru are already shifting to Tether. WazirX’s INR/USDT pair volume rose 183% from Thursday to ₹1.25 lakh per hour at 17:00 IST.
