Reserve Bank of India
India needs global collaboration to decide on crypto’s future, says finance minister
Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called for global collaboration on cryptocurrencies, assessing their pros and cons to form a common standard and taxonomy. Addressing a question on cryptocurrency in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, Sitharaman said that the Indian central bank had advised the government to prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies as it poses a risk to financial stability. However, the government is looking for a global approach. She said: “Any legislation for regulation or banning can be effective only after significant international collaboration on evaluation of the risks and benefits and evolution of common taxonomy and standards.” She also reiterated the Indian central bank’s stance on crypto’s value is based on speculation....
CBDCs can “kill” private crypto: India’s RBI deputy governor to IMF
In discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), T Rabi Sankar, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reflected an anti-crypto stance as he spoke about India’s potential to disrupt the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. Rabi Sankar started the conversation by highlighting the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s in-house fiat-based peer-to-peer payments system — which has seen an average adoption and transaction growth of 160% per anum over the last five years. “One of the reasons it is so successful is because it’s simple,” he added while comparing UPI’s growth with blockchain technology. According to Rabi Sankar: “Blockchain, which was introduced six-eight years before UPI started, even today is being referred to as a potentially revolut...
India to roll out CBDC using a graded approach: RBI Annual Report
Further cementing India’s decision to introduce an in-house central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2022-23, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed a three-step graded approach for rolling out CBDC “with little or no disruption” to the traditional financial system. In February, while discussing the budget for 2022, Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the launch of a digital rupee to provide a “big boost” to the digital economy. In the annual report released Friday by India’s central bank, RBI revealed exploring the pros and cons of introducing a CBDC. In the report, RBI stressed the need for India’s CBDC to conform to India’s objectives related to “monetary policy, financial stability and efficient operations of currency and payment systems.” Based on this need, RBI is...
RBI warns of crypto ‘dollarization’ of Indian economy
Officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have reportedly sounded the alarm bells again over crypto adoption, which they claim will ultimately lead to the “dollarization” of the local economy. According to a Monday report from the Indian branch of the Economic Times — which cited unnamed sources — the RBI’s concerns are focused on U.S. dollar-dominated cryptocurrencies taking away market share from the Indian rupee. The publication notes that RBI officials, along with its governor Shaktikanta Das, provided a briefing to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance this week. In it, they took a very skeptical stance toward crypto’s potential influence on the financial system. An unnamed official is quoted as saying: “Almost all cryptocurrencies are dollar-denominated and issued by f...
Indian central bank’s ‘informal pressure’ disrupted payments: Coinbase CEO
Just three days after debuting in the Indian market, United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase abruptly stopped using United Payments Interface (UPI), the most popular payment service in the region. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong later revealed that the service disruption was due to an “informal pressure” from India’s central bank. During Coinbase’s 2022 Quarterly Earnings call, Armstrong spoke about the company’s global expansion plans while acknowledging Coinbase’s role in starting the conversation with regulators related to crypto adoption. When asked about the impact of the recent disruption related to offering payment services in India, Armstrong stated: “So a few days after launching, we ended up disabling UPI because of some informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of Indi...
Indian INX exchange reportedly plans to list Bitcoin futures ETF
Despite the ongoing uncertainty about cryptocurrency regulation in India, local financial firms are backing new ventures aiming to launch Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF). Torus Kling Blockchain, a joint venture between Cosmea Financial Holding, a financial firm backed by former Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh, and Kling Trading India, is preparing to launch Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) futures ETFs in India, The Economic Times reported Thursday. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s major stock exchange, the India International Exchange (INX), to launch crypto ETFs alongside investment products tracking major metaverse-related companies listed in the United States. According to the report, Torus Kling Blockchain is planning to set up the ETFs in the Gujarat ...
