NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das has reiterated his call for an outright ban on cryptocurrencies, saying these are “nothing but gambling” and their perceived “value is nothing but make-believe.”
To further its opposition to such currencies and also to take a lead over other central banks, the RBI had recently launched its own digital currency (central bank digital currency), in the form of e-rupee on a pilot mode, first for the wholesale market in late last October and a month later for retail customers.
Speaking at a banking conference in New Delhi on January 13, Das said, “Every asset, every financial product has to have some underlying (value) but in the case of crypto there is nothing.” Crypto is not a financial product,” he asserted. Warning that legalising cryptos will lead to more dollarisation of the economy, he said crypto masquerading as a financial asset was a completely misplaced argument.
To a question whether he saw any threat to the safety and security of banking from the increased digitization of payments, Das said banks had to ensure that they were not swallowed by big tech which today controlled most digital transactions.
On the CBDC being piloted now, he said central banks issued digital currencies were the future of money and their adoption could help save on logistic and printing costs.
