RBI Governor Bats For Ban On Cryptocurrencies; Equates Them With Gambling

New Delhi: Shaktikanta Das, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reaffirmed on Friday that cryptocurrencies are similar to gambling because of their fictitious perceived worth.

Das demanded a ban on cryptocurrencies while speaking at a local media gathering and claimed that they have no intrinsic worth. There is no underlying value in what those who support it term an asset or a financial product, he continued.

The central bank recently piloted the creation of its own digital currency, the e-rupee or central bank digital currency (CBDC), to combat the rise of cryptocurrencies.

“Every asset, every financial product has to have some underlying (value) but in the case of crypto, there is no underlying value. So anything without any underlying, whose value is dependent entirely on make-believe, is nothing but 100 per cent speculation or to put it very bluntly, it is gambling,” he said.

“Since we don’t allow gambling in our country, and if you want to allow gambling, treat it as gambling and lay down the rules for gambling. But crypto is not a financial product,” Das added.

He furthered that CBDCs are the future of money and its adoption can help save on logistic and printing costs.