At a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) glares at private digital currencies, the suggestion of crypto bank Cashaa to introduce banking operations in India for customers of digital currencies like Bitcoin from next month, through the credit co-operative society route, is interesting to note.

Cashaa said that it has introduced the world’s first crypto-friendly financial institution Unicas with physical branches in India in association with the United Multistate Credit Co-operative Society. CEO and Cashaa founder Kumar Gaurav said that it facilitates services for both fiat and cryptocurrencies from a single savings account. The bank aims to extend loans to purchase cryptos and open savings accounts for customers.

Inquired whether the company has acquired RBI’s consent to introduce a ‘bank’, Gaurav said that United is a multistate credit co-operative society which ‘works and is registered under the Registrar of Societies’. He continued that as they provide services to members only, they don’t need the RBI’s consent for that model. However, the RBI and Finance Ministry didn’t respond to questions about the legal position of Cashaa’s bank.