Today in crypto: Coinbase has reportedly reopened India app registrations, with local fiat on-ramps planned for 2026 following a rocky exit more than two years ago, ZKsync Lite is being sunset in 2026, and WisdomTree has expanded its tokenized fund offerings by bringing options income onchain.
Coinbase mounts a cautious comeback in India, two years after exit
Major US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is returning to India after a two-year absence from the market.
Coinbase has resumed app registrations in India as it prepares to roll out local fiat on-ramps in 2026, Coinbase APAC director John O’Loghlen announced at India Blockchain Week (IBW), according to a Sunday report by TechCrunch.
Coinbase’s return to India comes more than two years after it ceased local services in September 2023, following a troubled debut of its local exchange launched in 2022.
“We had millions of customers in India, historically, and we took a very clear stance to off-board those customers entirely from overseas entities, where they were domiciled and regulated. Because we wanted to kind of burn the boats, have a clean slate here,” O’Loghlen said.
As Coinbase resumes customer onboarding in India, users can immediately execute crypto-to-crypto trades, according to the report by TechCrunch.
The exchange initially began onboarding users through an early-access program in October, around the time it hired Karan Malik as its India marketing lead.
Malik had previously overseen marketing for last year’s IBW event, where Coinbase served as a platinum sponsor this year.
“Last year, I was leading the charge and building the marketing and brand playbook for IBW. This year, I’m bringing Coinbase to the party,” the exec said.
When approached by Cointelegraph about its relaunch in India, a Coinbase spokesperson said the exchange’s FIU registration in March allows it to offer crypto trading services in the country. The representative declined to provide further details at this time.
Ethereum’s first ZK-rollup, ZKsync Lite, to sunset in 2026
The first-ever zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup network to launch on Ethereum, ZKsync Lite, will have a “planned, orderly sunset” next year, as its creator, ZKsync, says it has “served its purpose.
It added that ZKsync Lite “was a groundbreaking proof-of-concept and validated critical ideas related to building production ZK systems,” and it “did its job: prove what’s possible and pave the way for the next generation.”
Technology company Matter Labs launched the network, then called ZKsync 1.0, in 2020, designing it for fast transfers and minting non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but its use was limited as it didn’t support smart contracts.
Development on ZKsync Lite stopped in early 2023 after Matter Labs launched its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) that supported smart contracts, ZKsync Era.
ZKsync’s other products will not be affected, and it added that it would share “concrete details, dates, and migration guidance soon” for ZKsync Lite.
WisdomTree tokenizes options income strategy
Asset manager WisdomTree has launched a tokenized fund that brings a complex options-income strategy onchain, underscoring the growing convergence between blockchain technology and traditional finance.
The WisdomTree Equity Premium Income Digital Fund is designed to track the price and yield performance of the Volos US Large Cap Target 2.5% PutWrite Index, a benchmark “put-writing” strategy often used to generate income and help hedge against market volatility.
Will Peck, WisdomTree’s head of digital assets, said the new product gives investors additional flexibility to trade investment strategies onchain.
With this launch, WisdomTree now operates 15 tokenized funds, including its widely used Government Money Market Fund, which holds more than $730 million in assets.