According to sources familiar with the pilot project, India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee, has seen a significant drop in usage, plummeting to just a tenth of its peak in December 2023. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had initially achieved 1 million daily retail transactions with the digital rupee by offering incentives to banks and distributing portions of salaries through the digital currency. However, once these incentives were removed, daily transactions dwindled to around 100,000, indicating a lack of natural demand. The RBI is now focusing on testing technology and developing use cases, with no immediate plans for rapid expansion.
