According to new claims quoting officials from the People’s Bank of China, the 2022 Winter Olympics participants, tourists, and organisers might spend more than $300,000 every day in China’s digital yuan.
According to Mu Changchun, director-general of the PBoC’s Digital Currency Research Institute, the e-CNY, China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), is used to make 2 million yuan ($316,000) or more worth of payments every day. According to Reuters, the source offered the information during a webinar organised by the Atlantic Council on Tuesday.
Foreign users, however, are more likely to use hardware wallets, alluding to e-CNY payment cards, which resemble credit cards but lack the traditional chip and magnetic strip. Domestic users are the primary users of software wallets, according to Mu. Given that overall digital yuan transaction volumes had reached $13 billion by November 2021 since the Chinese CBDC initially opened in April 2020, the reported amount is a major contribution to China’s CBDC expansion.
International visitors can exchange their foreign banknotes into e-CNY or regular yuan banknotes at a handful of special ATMs put up by the state-controlled Bank of China at various important locations during the Games.
Hmm, times are changing.
