Crypto Adoption Numbers in India Could Be ‘Exaggerated,’ Says RBI Governor
Shaktikanta Das said he is “not so sure about the numbers which being quoted.”
Nov 10, 2021 at 1:04 p.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 7:08 p.m. UTC
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The governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) believes that the number of Indians reported to be investing in crypto could be “exaggerated.”
- Shaktikanta Das said he is “not so sure about the numbers which being quoted,” in an interview, which was part of financial newspaper Business Standard’s BFSI Insight Summit on Wednesday.
- “With a reasonable amount of confidence, I think the number of participants in the crypto market seems somewhat exaggerated,” he said, but admitted the RBI does not have a completely clear view as it is an unregulated sector.
- Das added that 70% or more of participants had only invested around INR 1,000-INR 3,000 (US$13-$40).
- The central bank governor was responding to recent suggestions that adoption of crypto was among the highest in the world with some 7.3% of the population owning cryptocurrency.
- Crypto is a “very serious concern” for the RBI owing to matters of macroeconomic and financial stability, Das had previously said in the interview.
- India’s government looked poised to introduce legislation outright banning crypto earlier this year, but this stance has since softened with suggestions that cryptocurrency would be regulated as an asset class like commodities.
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Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.