The circulation of central bank digital currency (CBDC), or e-rupee, surged to Rs 1,016 crore by the end of March 2025, up from Rs 234 crore a year earlier, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report released on Thursday.The RBI also indicated that it is exploring cross-border CBDC pilot projects, though it did not specify a timeline, PTI reported.The CBDC was first introduced in November 2022 with a wholesale pilot, followed by a retail pilot. One of the core advantages of the CBDC has been the potential to simplify cross-border payments — a growing necessity in the face of challenges posed by non-fiat virtual currencies such as Bitcoin.“…the Reserve Bank is exploring commencement of CBDC pilots on cross-border payments both on bilateral and multilateral basis to overcome key challenges related to turnaround time, efficiency and transparency,” the report stated.Bilateral cross-border pilots with select countries are being “actively explored,” with significant progress reported in finalising the roadmap, technical framework, and use cases.The RBI is also considering participation in multilateral CBDC initiatives, particularly through the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub.The central bank further aims to expand the scope of both e-rupee-Retail and e-rupee-Wholesale pilots by introducing new features and use cases. It also plans to improve the technological aspects of the account aggregator framework to boost transparency, customer convenience, and efficiency.Of the total Rs 1,016 crore e-rupee in circulation, Rs 857 crore is in the Rs 500 denomination, followed by Rs 200 notes at Rs 91 crore and Rs 100 notes at Rs 38 crore, the report noted.Starting with person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions, the e-rupee-Retail pilot expanded in FY25 to include offline payments and programmability features.As of March 2025, the retail pilot included 17 banks and 60 lakh users. To drive adoption, certain non-banking entities have also been permitted to offer CBDC wallets.The wholesale version of the CBDC has also been expanded, with four standalone primary dealers (SPDs) added to the network.Programmability use cases highlighted in the report include direct benefit transfers to farmers based on carbon credit generation and loans to tenant farmers under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme in select areas. Banks are also implementing programmable employee allowances for fuel and meals.The state of Odisha made e-rupee payments to 88,000 beneficiaries under the Subhadra Yojana. Discussions are ongoing with multiple central government ministries and state governments to utilise CBDC’s programmability for targeted fund transfers with defined end uses.
