Overview
- Sources describe a tentative launch window in the first quarter of 2026, with the rollout contingent on regulatory approvals and operational testing.
- ARC is designed to maintain a 1:1 value with the rupee and be fully backed by cash, fixed deposits, and sovereign instruments such as government securities and Treasury bills.
- The architecture pairs the RBI’s digital rupee as the settlement layer with ARC as a programmable interaction layer for use in compliant payment and remittance flows.
- Only authorized corporate and institutional accounts would be permitted to mint new tokens, aligning with India’s partial convertibility and LRS rules.
- Technical controls, including Uniswap v4 hooks that restrict swaps to whitelisted addresses, are planned to enforce access limits as policymakers seek to curb outflows into dollar stablecoins and keep liquidity onshore.