The Shenzhen government announced on New Year’s Eve that it would give away 100,000 red packets via a lottery to local residents, with each packet worth 200 digital yuan, or $30. According to the announcement, Lottery-winners will be able to spend the digital yuan between January 7 and January 17 among over 10,000 shops, restaurants, and supermarkets in Shenzhen. Shenzhen also conducted China’s first city-wide digital yuan test via a lottery giveaway in October.
China fast tracks CBDC testing.
Earlier in October, Shenzhen gave away digital yuan worth $1.5 million in total available for 50,000 residents, who were able to spend the free money at some 3,000 local stores. In December, Suzhou city doubled down on the efforts to test China’s digital yuan, which was on a much larger scale in multiple aspects. Suzhou test ended on December 27. In a WeChat post a week ago, the Suzhou government said that 96,614 lottery winners collected their digital yuan and spent almost all of the $3 million free money. The people’s Bank of China has fast-tracked the pilot project of its digital yuan.
Central banks continue to explore CBDC.
As reported earlier, Sweden’s government will start exploring the feasibility of having a digital currency, marking another step into the unknown for the world’s most cashless society. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has been working on the national digital currency for the last five to six years and is now very close to issuing it to the general public. Some smaller countries have already issued their national digital currency. Cayman island launched a national digital currency this year. Central banks of Canada, Japan, the Philippines, and many others are actively exploring CBDCs.
