At a news conference on Tuesday, Zou Lan, the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) head of financial markets, released an update on the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan.
According to a PBOC official, e-CNY had 261 million unique users by the end of 2021, with transactions totaling 87.5 billion yuan ($13.78 billion). In addition, the digital yuan is now accepted by almost 8 million retailers.
Over the last two years, China’s central bank has been aggressively testing its digital currency, also known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), in a number of locations. The central bank has started giving out digital yuan to people through lotteries.
By number of downloads, the digital yuan wallet app has become one of China’s most popular app .
The software was released earlier this month on the iOS and Android app stores. Users in trial cities and at the forthcoming Winter Olympics sites, however, will be able to join up and spend the digital yuan at one of the 8 million shops that accept it.
Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xian, Qingdao, Dalian, and the venues of this year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing are among the testing locations for the digital yuan.
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