Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das during a press briefing said that private cryptocurrencies are a major threat to the macroeconomic and financial stability of the country.
"I have spelt out the RBI's stand before too. Our position is very clear. Private cryptocurrency is a big threat to India’s macroeconomic and financial stability," said Governor Das on Thursday.
He said that the RBI’s policy actions in areas on cryptocurrency or cryptocurrencies that have currency-like character is that they will undermine RBI’s ability to deal with issues of financial stability and macroeconomic stability.
“It is my duty to tell the investors who invest in cryptocurrencies to keep in mind that they are investing at their own risk. These cryptocurrencies do not have an underlying value -- not even a tulip,” said the Governor.
The RBI also said that Digital Rupee is like the paper rupee, just the form will be electronic or digital. “Like how you keep the paper rupee in your wallet, digital rupee will be kept in the device. There is no difference between the two. The only difference between Digital Rupee and cryptocurrency is that the former will be issued by the RBI. Like the rupee note, this will also be part of the liability. Cryptocurrencies are privately-created products,” said RBI deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar during the virtual meeting.
This comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during the Budget 2022 speech, announced the proposal to introduce a Digital Rupee.
“Introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will give a big boost to digital economy. Digital currency will also lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system. It is, therefore, proposed to introduce Digital Rupee, using blockchain and other technologies, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23,” she had said.
Also read: From Digital Rupee to digital university: Budget 2022 was all about digitisation