RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday made it clear that private cryptocurrencies are a threat to macroeconomic and financial stability, and undermine its ability to deal with challenges on the two fronts. Cautioning investors, the governor said such assets have no underlying whatsoever, “not even a tulip”.

The comments are a reiteration of institutional concerns on such assets expressed earlier but assume significance because they come days after the Union Budget put a 30 per cent tax on gains made on such assets. The crypto stakeholders had welcomed the move as one which “legitimises” their trade.