Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra affirms the country’s backing for digital infrastructure like blockchain and tokenisation, but signals a cautious stance on private cryptocurrencies due to concerns over monetary sovereignty and policy control.
India is continuing to support the infrastructure behind digital assets while keeping a wary distance from cryptocurrencies themselves, Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Saturday, drawing a line between the technology and the tokens that sit on top of it. Speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave in New Delhi, Malhotra said the central bank is backing distributed ledger technology and tokenisation, including through projects inside the RBI and in public-private partnerships, but remains cautious on crypto assets because of concerns over monetary sovereignty, monetary policy and capital flows.
The stance reflects a familiar balancing act for India, which has shown interest in blockchain-style systems while stopping short of endorsing private cryptocurrencies. According to reports by Business Standard, Moneycontrol and The Economic Times, Malhotra said the central bank sees value in the underlying plumbing of digital finance, but is uneasy about the broader implications of crypto for the “singleness of money” and for policy control, especially in emerging markets where restrictions on capital movement already play an important role.
Malhotra also argued that the case for crypto as a solution to everyday payments is weaker than often claimed. Domestic transfers in India are already fast, inexpensive and convenient, he said, leaving cross-border payments as the bigger challenge. He suggested that other tools, including central bank digital currencies, could be explored for international settlement instead of relying on private digital assets.
Beyond crypto, the governor turned to the strain building in global debt markets, saying hardening bond yields largely reflects tighter supply and demand as governments and companies increase spending. He pointed to artificial intelligence as one factor adding to private-sector investment and, by extension, competition for scarce capital. Malhotra said the RBI remains focused on India’s domestic growth-inflation outlook, but added that higher global interest rates can still feed into India through real borrowing costs, making them a policy issue the central bank cannot ignore.
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