India’s central bank has announced plans to expand the digital rupee with enhanced features and cross-border use cases, signaling a strategic push toward potential global integration of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).
According to CNBC TV18, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) detailed in its 2024–25 Annual Report that the next phase of the digital rupee’s development will build on lessons learned from ongoing pilot programs. The RBI launched its wholesale CBDC pilot in November 2022, followed closely by a retail version in December of the same year.
#RBIAnnualReport | The @RBI plans to expand the scope of its #CBDC pilots for both retail (e₹-Retail) and wholesale (e₹-Wholesale) segments, and also introduce new use cases and features for the #DigitalRupee @PihuYadav05 | #RBI #Rupee https://t.co/biLvVZrgwX
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) May 29, 2025
While the RBI has yet to disclose specific new functionalities, the report confirms that the central bank is actively exploring the use of the digital rupee for cross-border transactions, both on bilateral and multilateral platforms. Supporting this expansion, the report also highlights a significant surge in circulation value, growing 334% year-over-year from ₹234.04 crore (approximately $28.1 million) in FY24 to ₹1,016.46 crore (around $122.1 million) in FY25.
Despite this value growth, adoption on the retail front has been relatively slow. By late June, the RBI reported only 1 million retail transactions, a figure reached only after commercial banks introduced incentives and began partially paying employee salaries in the digital rupee. This contrasts sharply with the RBI’s earlier ambition.
The central bank had previously urged financial institutions to ramp up digital rupee transactions to at least 1 million per day by the end of 2023 to test the infrastructure’s scalability. However, that directive has since been quietly withdrawn, raising fresh concerns over the long-term feasibility of the digital currency initiative. The gap between incentive-driven performance and organic user engagement has introduced doubts about whether the e-rupee can achieve meaningful adoption at scale.
Adding to the broader uncertainty around India’s digital asset landscape, the country’s Supreme Court recently voiced serious concerns about the lack of a comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. The court underscored the systemic risks posed by unregulated Bitcoin trading, emphasizing the urgency for clear and enforceable crypto policies.
If you want to read more news articles like this, visit DeFi Planet and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and CoinMarketCap Community.
“Take control of your crypto portfolio with MARKETS PRO, DeFi Planet’s suite of analytics tools.”
