Digital Yuan New Phase

Chinese experts affirm that the orderly expansion of digital renminbi trials, is expected to advance its research and development and wide-range applications as the nation works to build a robust ecosystem to support its digital currency (e-CNY).

The third set of regions that will be involved in the e-CNY trials are Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities, and Guangdong Province.

Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, released its list of new regions for e-CNY including Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian Province, as well as six cities (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing and Jinhua) related to the 19th Asian Games, which will be held in Zhejiang province.

The digital yuan is expected to be used beyond retail payment scenarios in the near future after more tests are conducted in China's banking system. A key focus of current tests is on the digital renminbi's ability to process consumer payments and has been progressing steadily. The central and commercial banks will need to conduct a large number of tests before the digital renminbi is ready for wide usage.

China has steadily advanced e-CNY research and development in recent years. The outlines of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 have included that task, and more than 10 provincial regions have declared their ambition to pilot digital renminbi services.

China made the digital yuan available in 10 pilot regions as well as the Olympic stadiums in Beijing 2022 before the third wave of pilot regions. Those 10 regions included Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou in Jiangsu province. Hainan was the only provincial-level trial region.

People's Bank of China data shows that by the end of 2021, 261 million digital yuan wallets had been opened and transactions amounted to nearly 87.57 billion yuan (13.78 billion U.S. dollars) .