RBI Governor Shares RBI’s Position: Crypto Should be Banned

• RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das compared cryptocurrencies to gambling during the Business Today event on Friday.
• He reiterated the position of RBI that cryptocurrencies should be banned.
• He talked about the unreliability of crypto, explaining that it cannot be even called an asset.

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, while addressing the Business Today Banking and Economy Summit on Friday, underscored RBI’s position, reiterating the significance of banning crypto trade. He added that the definition of crypto is “very unclear” and is analogous to “gambling”.

Notably, Das argued that there is no valid reason to acknowledge cryptocurrency as an “asset” or a “financial product”:

Some people call it as an asset, while others call it as a financial product and if that be the case, it has to have some underline. In the case of crypto, there is no underline.

In addition, he pointed out the risky factor that would lead to RBI vastly losing control over the money supply in the economy. He corroborated his ideas by showcasing the fact that “20 percent of transactions are happening through crypto”, which is neither authorized nor regulated by the central bank.

Further, Das expounded on the unreliability of cryptocurrencies, featuring the volatility in price:

The volatility in prices is based on the make-believe concept where a particular crypto’s price can go up or down. So, anything that comes without any underline whose valuations is entirely dependent on make-believe is just 100 percent speculation or it can be bluntly termed as gambling.

Significantly, his words resonated with the bleak future of cryptocurrency, when he cited the example of the fall of the once-prominent crypto trading firm FTX. However, he incorporated the necessity of supporting blockchain technology as it has “so many other applications”, other than crypto trade.