PetroChina Completes First International Crude Oil Trade in Digital Yuan: Report
PetroChina bought 1 million barrels of crude oil settled in e-CNY at the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange.
Digital yuan app adds prepaid Mastercard Visa top-ups for tourists
The e-CNY app now allows tourists to top-up their wallets using Mastercard and Visa payments with a “recharge first and use later” option.
China’s digital yuan nears $250B transaction volume: Central bank governor
While the adoption and use cases of China’s e-CNY are expanding, the digital yuan still only represents 0.16% of China’s monetary supply.
China could benefit from yuan stablecoin over its CBDC — Circle CEO
China may have banned the use of cryptocurrencies, but stablecoins might have a role to play in the proliferation of its national currency.
Singapore Bank DBS Starts e-CNY Collection Platform
The newly launched merchant collection solution allows businesses automated settlement of e-CNY into their CNY bank deposit accounts.
China doles out millions in digital yuan in bid to boost adoption: Report
Multiple Chinese city governments have given away millions worth of e-CNY to try to promote consumption around the holiday season.
Chinese Communist Party officials issue KPIs for e-CNY transactions in Suzhou
CCP officials want to see the e-CNY surpass $300 billion in transactions in 2023 through promotional efforts.
China’s digital yuan gets smart contract functionality alongside new use cases
China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) has seen new use cases in recent days, including buying securities and making offline payments.
Former Chinese central banker says digital yuan ‘usage has been low’
A former China central banker said cumulative e-CNY transactions only crossed $14 billion in two years, adding the results were “not ideal.”
China’s CBDC wallet resorts to ages-old tradition to boost adoption
A traditional Chinese way of gifting money that’s gone virtual with the rise of digital payments has been introduced into the digital yuan wallet app.
Chinese municipal bank issues first-ever digital yuan loan using intellectual property as collateral
The unnamed recipient of the loan said the e-CNY transaction was fast and efficient; they received an equivalent of 500,000 CNY, which was $74,020 at the time of publication.
More than 2.6 million users signed up for the City of Shenzhen’s digital yuan airdrop
The city has about 18 million residents in its prefecture-level area.
China’s central bank to expand deployment of e-CNY
Over 4,567,000 merchants across the country now accept the e-CNY as payment.
City of Shenzhen airdrops 30M in free digital Yuan to stimulate consumer spending
The move comes as part of a government effort-led to revitalize consumer spending as a zero-COVID policy has devastated the countries’ economic hubs.
PBoC governor says digital yuan to be more privacy-enhanced than payment apps
Making the e-CNY more privacy-orientated aside, the PBoC already has ambitions to bring the CBDC onto the world stage.
Shanghai Man: Economist says El Salvador ‘on road to death’, salaries paid in e-CNY …
Former banking heads question foreign financial policies, workers paid with digital yuan in milestone pilot and a large Series A is closed by DeFi platform SynFutures.
China’s Central Bank To Work With Alibaba’s Ant On Digital Yuan
Per a report by VOA News, Alibaba Group’s affiliate Ant Group has signed a partnership with the People’s Bank of China. The partners will work to build a platform for the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). VOA quotes the Chinese state media Global Times.
The Digital Yuan, also know as Digital Renminbi or e-CNY, the development will be “jointly promote” by the partners and will be based on Alibaba’s affiliate. The Global Times revealed that banking institutions have worked with Ant and the multinational Chinese conglomerate Tencent for over 3 years. Together they have co-develop the Digital Yuan.
Ant and Tencent have gone through a lot of scrutinies by China’s government. However, this has not prevented them to work on the project. VOA claims that the People’s Bank of China requires assistance to build the CBDC’s infrastructure and its distribution channels. China expects the e-CNY to be used in local retail payments and later to be adopted by foreign countries.
Francis Lun, CEO of Geo Securities, told VOA that Alibaba’s affiliate was ordered by Chinese authorities to submit their database. Ant is one of China’s largest payment providers and has control of over 54% of the countries e-payment market, per data shared in the report. The company offered to assist, but the government refused for concerns about a potential “conflict of interests”. Lun said:
The Chinese authorities are telling Ant that you should hand over your big data to the central bank. The data won’t remain in private hands since the Communist Party is the boss.
The Digital Yuan To Be Nothing Like Bitcoin
Authorities on the People’s Bank of China have said their CBDC will have unique features. According to the VOA report, the digital Yuan will be a tool for government surveillance. He compared China’s e-CNY with George Orwell’s classic “1984”, a complete opposite of Bitcoin.
The digital currency will allow China to track all transactions and it will be part of an attempt to carry out a “de-dollarization” of the international financial system. However, the distribution phase will be critical for the long-term survival of the CBDC. Lin told VOA the following:
By collaborating with the central bank [to launch the e-CNY], these fintech giants will be relieved from pressure in the regulator’s anti-monopoly probe. Their monopoly is hard to break up unless there emerges a competitor as strong as the e-CNY to take up at least one-third of the market shares.
Via her Twitter account Dovey Wan, founder partner at Primitive Crypto, shared an image with the digital Yuan’s (RMB/DECP, Digital Currency/Electronic Payment) wallet. Still in its test phase, the wallet will allow users to send and receive money with a simple swipe up or down. Wan said:
This is a beta now being tested in Shenzhen, some municipal payment and public economic activity will be first adopted, then merchant adoption. China is really good at deploying new tech infra at large scale, this wont be exception.
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