India settles Russian and UAE crude imports in Bitcoin — rupee no longer alone

Indian Oil Corporation confirmed it settled two crude cargoes — one Russian Urals, one UAE Murban — using Bitcoin, marking India’s first on-chain oil payments. The Reserve Bank of India had already told refiners to stop buying dollars on the spot market. Now the alternative has a name and a blockchain. India imports nearly 5 million barrels per day. Even a fraction of that settling in Bitcoin represents more daily on-chain volume than the entire Lightning Network moved last year. The RBI spent months building alternatives to the dollar. It took two weeks of Hormuz chaos to deploy them.