People’s Bank of China’s deputy governor has said that its central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial now involves 10 million people. Its next major phase will include tests at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. China has about 10 million people in its digital yuan program trial so far. The digital yuan trial has already involved millions of participants in various country regions, but this marks one of the biggest milestones yet.
Record use of digital yuan points to a warm welcome from the public.
In a press briefing on July 8, Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China Fan Yifei said that anyone could participate by applying for whitelisting. He then said that there were 10 million such individuals. The number of transactions recorded using the digital yuan points to a warm welcome from the public. Offering praise for the digital currency and the pilot programs, Yifei said that the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 would be the next major trial. The deputy governor also said that the bank has “the confidence to continue increasing the scope of the trials.”
China will be the first major economy to issue a CBDC.
China has been making progress on its CBDC for a long time and its testing in quite a pacy manner, with successful trials in areas like Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. China is the first major economy to treat CBDCs as a potential solution, while many others are only now beginning to research and develop a digital currency. Among these newly arrived nations exploring CBDC are Canada, France, New Zealand, Japan, and Sweden. Hong Kong’s finance minister has also stated that there are plans for digital currency in the region and that it would work particularly well with the tech-savvy youth.
