India has almost 400 billion rupees (around $5.2 million) in cryptocurrencies circulating.
India has almost 400 billion rupees (around $5.2 million) in cryptocurrencies circulating.
The Reserve Bank of India has announced that half a million citizens have already embraced the digital rupee, with 5,000 merchants in the South Asian country accepting the country’s first central bank digital currency as a payment method for everyday goods and services.
India’s digital rupee is currently undergoing testing under a pilot project launched last November. In December, the central bank revealed that the pilot program had been initiated across four cities and eight banks in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.
At least 770,000 transactions using the digital rupee have been logged at eligible banks, with five additional banks and eight more cities pledging to sign on, the Reserve Bank of India’s Deputy Governor Rabi Sankar recently said.
“We want the process to happen, but we want the process to happen gradually and slowly,” Sankar said. “We are in no hurry to make something happen so quickly.”
Last year, the Indian crypto industry accepted a 30% tax on crypto investments – one of the heftiest taxes on the nascent industry in the world.
Home to approximately 15 to 20 million digital traders, India has almost 400 billion rupees (around $5.2 million) in cryptocurrencies circulating.
The U.S. government says over 100 countries globally are looking at the prospect of launching a central bank digital currency.
New Delhi has said that a digital rupee would facilitate bulk payments and help banks across the country enable larger transactions on their platforms.