eRupee Recorded Rs 57000000 Transactions in Four Months Retail Trials RBI Report

eRupee, an Indian central bank digital currency (CBDC), crossed transactions of Rs 5.70 crore in the first 4 months after entering the retail trial phase. The information was disclosed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in response to an RTI query by Moneycontrol. RBI had started the eRupee retail trial on December 1, 2022 at select locations across the country.

“As per the data printed in the balance sheet of the Reserve Bank of India as on March 31, 2023, e-Rupees worth Rs 5.70 crore were issued for CBDC (retail),” the RBI said while responding to Moneycontrol's RTI query. ” CBDC is an electronic blockchain-based form of a currency. Using CBDC instead of cash will reduce dependence on paper notes and the data of all transactions will also remain clean.

A total of 13 banks, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Canara Bank, are helping RBI in conducting these trials. These banks have also offered benefits and rewards for people transacting with eRupee, helping the RBI meet its target of 10 lakh daily transactions by the end of 2023. RBI is planning to provide more features on eRupee in the coming months. Now many Indian banks are giving customers the opportunity to do transactions through this. Last week, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das told the media that eRupee CBDC will support offline payments for rural areas and programmability feature for corporate use.

Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX and co-founder of recently launched crypto futures exchange Pi42, expressed enthusiasm over RBI's CBDC plan in his post on X on Friday. “This is a great step towards increasing the adoption and growth of CBDC for all users,” Shetty said. “If there is a way to connect this CBDC to a decentralized blockchain then we could see INR integrated into DeFi. This will help the Indian Rupee to strengthen which will be better for India.”

India has launched another groundbreaking innovation in Banking with the introduction of OFFLINE payments via eRupee, following the tremendous success of #UPI.

Soon, transfer money wallet-to-wallet without an internet connection or intermediaries.#CBDC #eRupee #RBI pic.twitter.com/DDDDFVkC7y

— Darshak Raut (@darshaksinh) February 9, 2024

In a survey conducted by CFA Institute (Chartered Financial Analyst) in July last year, it was said that CBDC has been preferred more in the Asia-Pacific region. The report said that “Financial stability and inclusion are two of the key drivers driving interest in CBDCs across Asia-Pacific. Additionally, the rapid growth and sudden decline of private cryptocurrencies has increased interest in CBDCs.”