As of August 31, 2022, the volume of transactions using the digital yuan has exceeded 100 billion yuan (about $13.9 billion) due to its full-scale deployment in China.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) reported that as early as the end of 2021, this number was 87.6 billion yuan. To date, more than 5.6 million Chinese merchants can accept payments in the state stablecoin. About 360 million transactions have already been made with it in 15 provinces and municipalities. The regulator noted that around 30 rounds of e-CNY subsidies have been carried out this year in regions where the digital yuan has been tested to combat the coronavirus pandemic and promote environmentally friendly, low-carbon transportation.
The NBK also took part in testing a bridge for making payments with digital currencies of different central banks led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). This platform was introduced by the Singapore branch of the BIS Innovation Center at the beginning of last year. In addition, the NBK conducted several tests to connect to the Hong Kong digital payment system. The central bank said that previously e-CNY was mainly used for domestic retail payments, and will now be used at the corporate level, as well as in finance, taxation and government accounting.
The PBOC plans to introduce the digital yuan into China’s digital payment ecosystem, which is dominated by Alipay and WeChat Pay, to make it more convenient for buyers and sellers. Earlier, Mu Changchun, head of the Digital Currency Research Institute at the PBOC, said that the digital yuan would not compete with these payment systems, but would work in parallel with them.
Due to the active testing and implementation of the digital yuan, many financial advisers fear that it could displace the US dollar from international settlements. Australian Senator Andrew Bragg recently expressed similar concerns, calling the e-CNY a threat to the country’s national security.
Source: Bits
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