India’s Asset Reserve Certificates (ARC), a totally collateralized secure digital asset developed by Ethereum scaling and infrastructure growth large Polygon and India-based fintech agency Anq, might go stay within the first quarter of 2026, sources acquainted with the matter advised CoinDesk.
Sources mentioned that every ARC token will commerce 1:1 with the Indian rupee and shall be minted solely when issuers purchase money or money equivalents comparable to mounted deposits, authorities securities, or money balances. This setup ensures transparency, security, and compliance, addressing shortcomings usually seen in foreign-backed stablecoins or speculative tokens.
Basically, ARC is designed to stop liquidity outflow into dollar-backed stablecoins, retaining liquidity and innovation inside India’s home economic system whereas concurrently fostering demand for public debt devices.
The proposed digital token will complement the Reserve Financial institution of India’s (RBI) Central Financial institution Digital Forex (CBDC) by serving as a regulated interplay layer developed by the personal sector.
On this two-tier framework, the RBI’s Central Financial institution Digital Forex stays the final word settlement layer, safeguarding financial sovereignty and safety. On the similar time, the personal sector operates the platform that fosters accountable innovation in cost options, programmable transactions, and remittance techniques inside a regulatory-compliant setting.
This framework ensures robust management over the financial base by sustaining central oversight, all throughout the boundaries of India’s monetary and regulatory system.
Sources mentioned that the ARC will align with rupee partial convertibility: the INR is absolutely convertible for present account transactions comparable to commerce, enterprise funds, and remittances, however stays restricted for capital account transactions to guard financial stability.
The secure digital token will achieve this by permitting funds for enterprise transactions with out requiring full convertibility. Importantly, solely enterprise accounts shall be authorised to mint ARC tokens, making certain compliance with the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) guidelines governing particular person overseas trade transactions.
Moreover, ARC’s ecosystem will use Uniswap v4 protocol hooks to limit token swaps solely to whitelisted addresses, reinforcing managed entry and regulatory adherence.
India’s pursuit of a sovereign stablecoin comes amid rising issues over capital outflows from rising markets into dollar-backed stablecoins, following the Trump administration’s pro-crypto regulatory measures.
Notably, the landmark GENIUS Stablecoin Act legalized dollar-backed stablecoins, elevating alarms about important liquidity shifts away from rising economies.
Normal Chartered lately warned that rising market banks might face deposit outflows of as much as $1 trillion over the subsequent three years as savers more and more flip to dollar-backed stablecoins.
