India’s central bank chief has said the country’s stance on the issue of cryptocurrencies remains unchanged despite broader acceptance in other countries.

“Our position, my position, and the RBI’s position on this (cryptocurrencies) remains unchanged irrespective of who does what,” Shaktikanta Das said in response to a question about the US regulators approving the first US-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to track bitcoin.

The central bank chief has repeatedly said cryptocurrencies have no underlying value and pose risks to macroeconomic and financial stability.

The country imposed a 30% tax on trading, spending, and selling cryptocurrency in 2022. The tax went into effect in April of that year.

Das further cautioned that crypto remains a risky bet for emerging markets.

“For emerging markets and advanced economies also, traveling down that path will create huge risks that will be very difficult to contain going forward,” Das added.

Meanwhile, he highlighted the benefits of the central bank’s digital currencies, or e-rupee, in India’s case.

He said the central bank is working on “programmability” of the e-rupee to enable cash transfers, such as targeted transfers to farmers.

He added that the central bank also plans to start pilots for using the e-rupee in new wholesale segments.

The governor said Thursday that the RBI and the National Payments Council of India are in talks with several countries to adopt India’s payments system Unified Payments Interface for cross-border transactions.

Das also said the central bank is closely looking at model-based artificial intelligence lending by financial entities.