On March 11, 2025, Coinbase announced its registration with India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), marking a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency exchange in the Indian market. This development, as stated by Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal on Twitter, aims to empower Indian entrepreneurs to build and scale global on-chain businesses directly from India (Grewal, 2025). Following the announcement, the trading data reflected a clear impact on the market. At 10:00 AM UTC, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) on Coinbase increased by 2.5%, from $60,000 to $61,500. This surge was accompanied by a trading volume spike of 15% over the previous day's average, reaching 35,000 BTC traded within the first hour (Coinbase, 2025). Ethereum (ETH) also experienced a similar trend, with its price rising by 2.2% to $3,500 and a trading volume increase of 12%, totaling 250,000 ETH traded (Coinbase, 2025). The BTC/INR and ETH/INR trading pairs saw even more pronounced movements, with BTC/INR increasing by 3% to INR 4,920,000 and ETH/INR by 2.8% to INR 280,000 (WazirX, 2025). On-chain metrics also showed a positive response, with the number of active addresses on the Ethereum network increasing by 5% to 1.2 million, indicating heightened user activity (Etherscan, 2025).

The trading implications of Coinbase's FIU registration are multifaceted. The immediate price surge in BTC and ETH suggests a boost in investor confidence in the Indian market's potential for cryptocurrency growth. The increased trading volumes across multiple pairs, including BTC/USD, ETH/USD, BTC/INR, and ETH/INR, indicate heightened liquidity and interest from both domestic and international traders (Coinbase, 2025). Specifically, the BTC/INR pair saw a trading volume increase of 20% to 10,000 BTC, while ETH/INR experienced a 18% rise to 150,000 ETH, highlighting the strong demand for these assets in the Indian market (WazirX, 2025). Market sentiment analysis tools like the Fear and Greed Index moved from a neutral 50 to a more optimistic 60, reflecting a shift towards bullish sentiment (Alternative.me, 2025). Additionally, the registration is expected to facilitate smoother cross-border transactions and potentially attract more institutional investors to the Indian crypto market, further driving up demand and liquidity (Coinbase, 2025).

Technical indicators provide further insight into the market's reaction to Coinbase's FIU registration. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for BTC on Coinbase rose from 55 to 65, indicating that the asset was moving into overbought territory, suggesting potential for a short-term correction (TradingView, 2025). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for ETH showed a bullish crossover, with the MACD line moving above the signal line, confirming the upward momentum (TradingView, 2025). The Bollinger Bands for both BTC and ETH widened, indicating increased volatility following the announcement (TradingView, 2025). On-chain metrics also revealed that the transaction volume on the Bitcoin network increased by 8% to 2.5 million transactions, while the average transaction fee rose by 10% to $2.50, signaling higher network activity and demand (Blockchain.com, 2025). The total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on the Ethereum network increased by 3% to $100 billion, reflecting growing interest in DeFi applications post-announcement (DeFi Pulse, 2025).