Digital yuan: China tops $17M in CBDC issued

TL;DR Breakdown:

• Beijing and Suzhou will distribute about $6 million digital yuan on Wednesday.
• In total, more than $17 million of the CBDC has been issued under test.

According to an SCMP report on Monday, two major cities in the Republic of China, Beijing, and Suzhou, are planning to issue more digital yuan to local residents this week. This will bring the total issued digital currencies to over $17 million (or 110 million yuan). Since the past year, many cities in the country have issued digital currency, essentially as part of a test program. Despite having made considerable progress with the CBDC, the central bank is yet to announce a specific date for the official launch.

Beijing and Suzhou plans $6 million digital yuan giveaway

As reported, Beijing intends to distribute about $1.5 million in digital yuan to the residents by Wednesday through a lucky draw. Suzhou will distribute $4.6 million on the same day. In addition to testing the CBDC, the development is also aimed at increasing the residents’ consumption over the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. The digital currencies can be used either offline or online to purchase several items like shoes, clothes, etc., in selected local stores.

It’s worth noting that the city of Suzhou had already issued about $3 million in digital yuan in December. The government of Shenzhen also distributed about $7.7 million as part of the pilot program for the cryptocurrency. Following today’s report, the trial for the Chinese CBDC would be totaling over $17 million. It’s apparent that China is concerned with stress-testing the digital currency to ascertain its efficiency before the main launch.

Mass adoption for Chinese CBDC is imminent

The digital yuan would probably internationalize the Chinese yuan. Also, It’s easy to predict that the digital currency will also gain massive adoption in the country, as more Chinese companies are integrating support for it. For instance, the popular smartphone maker, Huawei, announced last year that its latest line of the phone would support a wallet for the Chinese CBDC.