MUMBAI: Crypto currencies cannot be referred to as “currencies” as they have no underlying value, a RBI official said.

The RBI has been critical of new-age currencies like bitcoins, saying they pose systemic risk to the financial systems.

“Crypto currencies cannot be called currencies as they don’t have any underlying value,” P Vasudevan, an executive director at the RBI, said during a panel discussion organised by IIM-Kozhikode here. Ultimately it is a call that the government has to take on how to tackle crypto currencies, he said.

Currently, bitcoins have no legal backing in India and investors have to pay a tax on the income earned by trading in them.