India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee, has experienced a significant decline in usage, decreasing to a tenth of its peak in December 2023, according to sources involved in the pilot project. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initially reached 1 million daily retail transactions with the digital rupee by incentivizing banks and distributing portions of salaries through the digital currency. However, when these incentives ended, daily transactions fell to approximately 100,000, revealing a lack of organic demand. The RBI is now concentrating on testing technology and developing use cases, with no immediate plans for rapid expansion.
