TL; DR Breakdown
- China’s PBoC boss claims users have opened more than 140 million accounts
- He says corporate entities have opened about 10 million accounts
- China witnessed a 3000% increase in digital yuan transactions in one year
China has shown that it has no plans to relent in its quest to officially roll out its Central Bank Digital Currency, the digital yuan. This is due to the massive testing that the currency has undergone since last year. At the recent Hong Kong Fintech Week, Peoples Bank of China gave an update regarding the testing program. According to the head of the CBDC arm of the PBoC, more than 140 million people across the country have created an account.
62 billion digital yuan transactions already occurred
The digital yuan or e-renminbi is the digital currency that the country has been testing for about five years. With digital currency gradually gaining acceptance across the country, more people are signing up for wallets. At the Fintech week, the digital currency head of the PBoC, Mu Changchun, noted that individual accounts are now over 140 million, with corporate entities accounting for nothing less than 10 million.
Although the official digital yuan launch date has not been picked, China has been working steadfastly to test the currency across different locations. With testing moving across various services and locations, Reuters claimed that about 62 billion yuan had been spent by the end of last month.
China sees 3000% increase in digital yuan transaction volume
Mu Changchun also mentioned that the Chinese population could choose from different types of wallets. Users of the first type of wallet, which only requires a phone number for activation, would be open to a transaction cap of about 50,000 digital yuan. Users who prefer the second type of wallet with no transaction cap will need to register at a bank. However, they will need a means of identification to be able to register their account.
China is gradually working towards the total replacement of cash payments with the digital yuan. This is why the country has extended its digital yuan testing across significant cities with diverse brands participating. However, the digital yuan is not like digital assets, as the PBoC controls and tracks transactions carried out by users.
Last year, at the Fintech week, the president of the premier bank in China, Yi Gang, mentioned that the pilot test saw Chinese citizens transact about 2 billion in yuan. Comparing that to this year’s number means that transaction volume had increased by 3000% in just one year. A lot of the transaction volume is said to be due to the trials taking place across new locations in the country.
