The Chinese central bank digital currency (CBDC) project has reached the mark of nearly $14 billion, or 100.04 billion yuan, of transactions made during its pilot phase. This makes the digital yuan, the e-CNY, the most widely adopted CBDC in the world.
As reported by the Bank of China in the post on its official WeChat page on October 10, at the end of the summer, the number of transactions carried out in 15 provinces within the CBDC pilot framework had reached 360 million. More than 5.6 million merchants already accept the digital yuan as legal tender, according to the post.
The pilot is also spreading among some state institutions, covering a wide range of citizen payments:
“Multiple e-government service platforms have opened digital renminbi payment services, supporting online and offline channels to handle various utility payments, using digital renminbi to issue tax refund funds, special funds for the monthly payment of medical insurance, funds to help people in need, and funds to support “specialized, special and new” companies, etc.”
The financial regulator shared its plans for the development of the project, which include launching cross-border payments between Hong Kong and mainland China, actively exploring the multilateral cross-border option in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements, and following the principle of ” anonymity for small amounts and traceability for large ones” to protect the user’s personal data.
With its first CBDC trials launched in April 2020, China’s central bank has set out to finally replace cash with the digital yuan. In September 2022, it shared its plans to expand the rollout of e-CNY to four provinces in the country, including Guangdong (previously, the pilot worked only in separate cities).
Curiously, The Bank of China reported the completion of transactions worth about 13,000 million dollars (87,500 million yuan) in January 2022, which, with the new update, could mean that in the last seven months the global amount of the new transactions did not exceed 1,000 million dollars.
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