China’s central bank digital currency now has 261 million unique users, according to an official of the central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). Additionally, 87.5 billion yuan (13.78 Billion USD) worth of transactions have been conducted using digital yuan. More than 8 million merchants accept eCNY.
China’s Central Bank Digital Currency Growing in Adoption
Zou Lan, head of financial markets at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), provided an update on the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan, at a press conference Tuesday.
According to the PBOC, e-CNY has 261 million users and 87.5 billion yuan ($13.78billion) in transactions that were done using digital currencies from the Chinese central banks. More than 8 million merchants accept digital Yuan.
China’s central bank has been actively testing its digital currency, also known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), in various cities over the past two years. Through lotteries, the central bank gave digital yuan to residents for them to use.
The digital yuan wallet app has become one of China’s fastest-growing apps by the number of downloads.
It was made available on the iOS as well as Android app stores in early March. Only users who live in the pilot cities or at the Winter Olympics venue can sign up for the app and use the digital yuan to purchase goods at any of the 8,000,000 stores that take e-CNY.
The trial regions for the digital yuan include Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xian, Qingdao, Dalian, and venues of this year’s Winter Olympics, hosted by Beijing.
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