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India's e-rupee reaches 6 million users, wholesale CBDC tested for G-sec settlements

The retail digital rupee pilot has grown but remains a rounding error against UPI; the wholesale track is where the RBI sees strategic value

자금· active 장기전·그들이 말하지 않는 것 ·6 시각 · ·rbtfl 업데이트 2026년 6월 27일

Summary

The Reserve Bank of India's retail central bank digital currency, the e₹-R (e-rupee), reached 6 million users and ₹1,016 crore in circulation by March 2025, with 19 participating banks now offering CBDC wallets. The RBI updated its official CBDC FAQ on February 4, 2026 as the pilot expanded. Welfare-linked pilots are active in Gujarat, Puducherry and Chandigarh, distributing food subsidies via programmable digital-rupee wallets. The RBI is developing offline capability via NFC technology and user-level programmability for government transfers. On the wholesale side (e₹-W), the RBI is testing CBDC for interbank settlement and government-securities clearing, and exploring cross-border payment applications. The wholesale track is where the RBI sees durable strategic value, potentially integrating with the FAR G-sec market flows and reducing SWIFT dependency in bilateral corridors. Retail adoption remains negligible against UPI's 23.2 billion monthly transactions. The RBI has quietly shifted its framing from volume targets to testing specific functionalities, a tacit acknowledgment that retail CBDC does not displace a payment rail already processing 737 million transactions per day.

The split

Official Indian communications present the e-rupee as a complement to UPI, not a competitor, stressing programmability (subsidies, grants) and financial inclusion for the unbanked. The technology-critical framing notes that China's more heavily promoted e-CNY has also struggled with organic adoption despite being live at national scale. The strategic divergence is wholesale: the RBI's cross-border CBDC testing, still early-stage, aligns with the rupee-internationalisation agenda and the India-UAE, India-Singapore payment corridors where UPI is already live.

By the numbers

  • 6 million, retail e-rupee users (March 2025)
  • ₹1,016cr, e-rupee in circulation (March 2025; up from ₹234cr in 2024)
  • 19, banks offering e-rupee wallets (2026)
  • 3, states/UTs running welfare-delivery pilots (Gujarat, Puducherry, Chandigarh)
  • 23.2bn, UPI monthly transactions (May 2026); e-rupee volumes not separately disclosed
  • February 4, 2026, date of latest RBI CBDC FAQ update

Why it matters

India's CBDC strategy matters primarily at the wholesale layer, where the RBI can reduce correspondent-banking friction in high-value cross-border settlements and create a programmable platform for government disbursements at scale. At the retail level, the e-rupee's relevance is confined to use cases UPI cannot serve: programmable conditional payments and offline cash for the unconnected. The trajectory diverges from the retail-first approach China has pursued.

What to watch

  • Whether e₹-W is integrated into FAR G-sec settlement for FPIs as part of the Bloomberg Global Aggregate inclusion process
  • Offline NFC capability launch: when it goes live, whether it drives adoption in rural and low-connectivity areas
  • Cross-border e₹-W pilots with UAE and Singapore: whether these link up with the existing UPI-UAE and UPI-Singapore corridors
  • Whether India joins the BIS mBridge or Project Nexus multilateral CBDC platforms