The value of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in circulation increased by 334 percent in financial year 2024-25, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report 2024-25, released on May 29.
The value of retail CBDCs stood at Rs 1,016.5 crore as of March 2025, sharply higher than Rs 234.0 crore as at the end March 2024, the annual report showed.
The Rs 500 digital currency value of Rs 857.68 was in circulation in 2025, which was the highest among the other denominations, on an overall basis, that is, including retail and wholesale e-Rupee.
The Rs 500 denominations have a major share in the retail CBDCs in value terms, constituting around 84.4 percent. This was followed by Rs 200 denominations of 9 percent share, and Rs 100 denominations having a share of 3.8 percent as at the end of March 2025.
In the volume terms, Rs 500 denomination dominated with 34.7 percent share having 171.5 lakh pieces in circulations.
On the other hand, the whole CBDC value turned nil in 2025, from Rs 0.08 in 2024, annual report showed.
The retail CBDC pilot was started on December 1, 2022. The RBI launched the wholesale pilot of CBDC on November 1, 2022 to settle G-Secs trades using the digital rupee.
Nine banks - State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), Union Bank of India (UBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank, and HSBC - were identified for testing.
Later, the RBI extended the pilot to the call money market.
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