India’s national payment network, called the unified payments interface (UPI), is expanding its services beyond Indian borders to Singapore. The cross-border connectivity between Singapore and India via their respective rapid payment systems, namely PayNow and the UPI. Shri Shaktikanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank, and Mr Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, launched the facility through token transactions using the UPI-PayNow linkage. The UPI-PayNow integration will allow users of the two nations to send money across borders quickly. It is possible to send or receive money from India using only a UPI-id, cellphone number, or …

The Indian government doesn’t want to rush its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot despite joining the CBDC race just a few months ago. India’s recently launched CBDC pilot has amassed 50,000 users, and 5,000 merchants since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the digital rupee pilot last year, local news agency The Economic Times reported on Feb. 8. Announcing the first public milestones of India’s digital currency at a policy press conference, RBI deputy governor Rabi Sankar stressed that the government plans to proceed with CBDC testing in the smoothest way possible. “We have our targets in terms …

One of India’s biggest retail chains, Reliance Retail, announced that they have started accepting the digital rupee at one of its store lines and plans to extend the rollout to all its businesses. In a report by Tech Crunch, the company said that CBDC support is already rolled out at Freshpik, its gourmet store line. In addition, the firm also noted that it will be expanding support for the digital rupee to all of its properties, a move that could potentially push adoption forward for the country’s CBDC. V Subramaniam, an executive at Reliance Retail, pointed out that the acceptance …

The governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, did not mince his words when discussing the crypto sector at a recent conference, asserting that “private” crypto will be behind the next financial crisis. Speaking at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit on Dec. 21, Das suggested that private crypto — those which are not issued by banks or governments — are backed by nothing and are purely tools for speculation. "They have no underlying value. They have huge inherent risks for our macro economic and financial stability. I am yet to hear any credible argument about what …

The state of New York became the first one in the United States to impose a moratorium on proof-of-work (PoW) mining, albeit only for two years. Last week, New York governor Kathy Hochul signed the moratorium into a bill, prohibiting any new mining operations that aren’t based on 100% renewable energy. The renewal of licenses would also be frozen. In eight months, the anti-mining bill made its way from the first passing through the state Assembly to the governor’s pen. The statewide development seems unlucky for New York City mayor Eric Adams, who is focused on making the city a …

Having tested the wholesale usage of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is preparing to conduct the retail pilot of the “digital rupee.” The pilot should launch within a month. According to the Economic Times of India, the RBI is in the final stage of preparing the rollout of the retail digital rupee pilot. Among the participants are the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank. Reportedly, at some point, the pilot is going to include all …

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has outlined proposed features and reasoning behind its in-development central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a 51-page note published on Oct. 7. The country’s central bank is looking to raise awareness of CBDCs, which are being developed by a number of central banks around the world, and to clearly define the objectives and choices as well as potential positive and negative elements of introducing a digital rupee in India. The document summarizes the key motivations for the issuance of an Indian CBDC, highlighting trust, safety, liquidity as well as settlement finality and integrity as …

The Twitter exchange between WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty and Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao over the ownership of the Indian crypto exchange grabbed a lot of headlines in the first week of August. WazirX was reportedly acquired by Binance in 2019, and ever since then, the Indian crypto exchange has been referred to as “Binance-owned”; however, to everyone’s surprise, CZ took to Twitter to claim that the acquisition process never went through and Binance has no ownership in the Indian crypto exchange. 2/ On 21 Nov 2019, Binance published a blog post that it had “acquired” WazirX. This transaction was …

In its latest financial stability report published on Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, reiterated its skepticism of digital assets, writing: "We must be mindful of the emerging risks on the horizon. Cryptocurrencies are a clear danger. Anything that derives value based on make-believe, without any underlying, is just speculation under a sophisticated name." The report alleged that decentralized cryptocurrencies "are designed to bypass the financial system and all its controls," including Anti-Money Laundering, Combatting Financial Terrorism, and Know Your Customer mechanisms. In a tone similar to the previous report, the RBI says that private currencies often result …

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 …

India’s Department of Economic Affairs is finalizing a consultation paper on cryptocurrencies, which will then be handed over to the federal government. The implementation of the document could bring the country of 14 billion people closer to the international regulatory consensus on digital assets. On Monday, during an event hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth revealed that his department is finishing the work on the consultation paper, which would define the nation’s stance on crypto. The document was crafted in cooperation with industry stakeholders, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Seth …

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 on 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 …