India To Start CBDC Pilot, Testing Soon: RBI Deputy Governor

Thanks to government legislation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in a position to start off with the testing and running of pilot projects of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). T. Rabi Sankar, RBI deputy governor, announced this on Friday, April 8, during a post Monetary Policy Committee Press conference.  

Sankar said the RBI will take a calibrated and nuanced approach towards CBDCs. “We will probably start off with one pilot and move on from one to the other. The wholesale segment is probably the first one we will try out as it will be the easiest to implement. The other segments are more technology-intensive,” he said. 

On Thursday, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) clarified that they were not aware of any virtual digital asset exchange using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for transactions. “With reference to some recent media reports around the purchase of cryptocurrencies using UPI, National Payments Corporation of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI,” the NPCI statement read. 

At its launch in India on April 7, Surojit Chatterjee, the chief product officer of crypto exchange Coinbase, had said using UPI would be the first step for India's citizens wishing to buy crypto on the platform. “India has shown a great willingness with UPI,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said. The comment drew NPCI’s clarification tweet. 

Crypto Prices 

The price of Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency market rose by 0.14 per cent in the last 24 hours, and it was trading at $43,514.37 at 4:30 pm IST. Its dominance in the crypto market is currently at 41.04 per cent, down by 0.20 per cent in the last 24 hours, according to Coinmarketcap.com. 

In the last 24 hours, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $3,275.73, a rise of 1.73 per cent, while Binance Coin (BNB) fell 0.29 per cent in the same period, and was trading at $430.23. Solana (SOL) was up by 1.16 per cent to $116.68, while Cardano (ADA) was up by 0.14 per cent to $1.09. 

Meme Coins 

Among meme coins, Dogecoin was up 0.89 per cent, and it was trading at $0.1474 at 4:30 pm on Coinmarketcap.com. Its rival, Shiba Inu, was down by 0.02 per cent and was trading at $0.00002481. Samoyedcoin was up by 3.67 per cent, trading at $0.02085, while Dogelon Mars was up by 0.78 per cent, and was trading at $0.000000941. 

Overall Scenario 

According to Coinmarketcap.com, the global crypto market cap was at $2.02 trillion, an increase of 0.85 per cent in the last 24 hours, while the total crypto market volume was $85.18 billion, down by 26.44 per cent. 

Shiba Toby (SHBT) became the biggest gainer, recording a rise of 254.90 per cent. It was trading at $0.00000002439 at 4:30 pm, according to Coinmarketcap. In contrast, Crypto Sheild (SHIELD) witnessed the maximum loss, falling 97.60 per cent. It was trading at $0.000001447.