Share this article
India's CBDC Has 5M Users, Can be Phased in Gradually: Central Bank Governor
Governor Shaktikanta Das said there should not be in any rush to roll out a system-wide CBDC.
Updated Aug 26, 2024, 6:40 p.m. Published Aug 26, 2024, 10:31 a.m.
- India's retail CBDC pilot has over 5 million users with as many as 16 banks participating.
- The nation's central bank Governor hinted at the possibility of avoiding a full-scale implementation.
India's central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das has said that while their retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot has over 5 million users, there should not be in any rush to roll out a system-wide CBDC.
The senior most official of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was speaking at at a conference in Bengaluru on Monday.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
India's plans for a retail and wholesale CBDC were announced as part of the Finance Minister's budget speech in 2022. By 2022-end, the RBI launched pilots for both CBDCs. By 2023-end, the retail CBDC hit a million transactions, at least on one day, with a little help from its friends, the banks.
On Monday, Das said as many as 16 banks are currently participating in the retail CBDC pilot but did not reveal a number for the daily transactions.
The RBI has previously said it isn’t in a hurry to implement a full-scale, retail CBDC and has not shared any timeline. But on this occasion Das hinted at the possibility of avoiding a full-scale implementation.
"Actual introduction of CBDC can be phased in gradually," Das said. "It is important to emphasize that there should not be in any rush to roll out system-wide CBDC before one acquires a comprehensive understanding of its impact on users, on monetary policy, on the financial system and on the economy."
Since the start of 2023, the RBI has been exploring offline payments and programmability and Das said this was being tested.
"The programmability feature of CBDC could serve as a key enabler for financial inclusion by ensuring delivery of funds to the targeted user," Das said while pointing to two use cases involving farmers launched as part of their pilot recently; Programming the end use for purchase of agricultural inputs to comfort banks and establish the farmer's identity; farmers getting purpose bound money for generation of carbon credits.
Das also said other "new use cases aimed at testing features such as anonymity and offline availability are proposed to be rolled out gradually."
Read More: India to Release Its Crypto Policy Stance by September After Stakeholder Consultations: Report
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Five Crypto Firms Win Initial Approvals as Trust Banks, Including Ripple, Circle, BitGo
The firms have obtained conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to convert into national trust banks.
What to know:
- Crypto firms Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo and Paxos received conditional approval by the OCC to become federally chartered trust banks.
- The move sets up firms to follow in the footsteps of Anchorage Digital, the first to get a federal bank trust charter in the U.S.
- A slew of stablecoin issuers and crypto firms, including Coinbase, filed for federal oversight after GENIUS Act was written into law.
Top Stories
