On July 19th, People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang announced that the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) has facilitated transactions worth 1.8 trillion yuan, approximately 250 billion USD, within just a year and a half since its pilot launch.
Since its initial launch in January 2022, the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) has witnessed around 950 million transactions from 120 million digital wallets. On average, each wallet conducted transactions worth approximately 260 USD.
According to Yi Gang, around 2.3 billion USD, equivalent to 16.5 billion CBDC, were in circulation by the end of June 2023, accounting for only 0.16% of China’s total money supply.
The adoption of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) is still very limited compared to China’s population of 1.4 billion people. Until now, this digital currency has mainly been used for domestic retail payments and some trials in Hong Kong.
On July 18, the South China Morning Post reported that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Hong Kong has started testing a cross-border payment program for customers of Chinese banks at selected retail stores in Hong Kong.
In January 2023, the central bank integrated smart contract functionality into the digital yuan to expand its use cases.