PBOC expands testing of digital yuan, and Winter Olympics a key field for testing

Central bank's digital currency trial continued to expand its scale in 2021, and Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics will be the next key field for the testing.

Beijing, Shanghai and Sanya in Hainan province handed out e-CNY envelopes to consumers, and the pilot cities of the digital yuan increased with application scenarios broadened further this year, involving almost all fields of commerce, trade and tourism.

As of Oct 8 this year, the digital RMB pilot application scenarios had exceeded 3.5 million. A total of 123 million personal wallets had been opened, with transaction volume about 56 billion yuan, said PBOC governor Yi Gang.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will be held from Feb 4-20, and March 4-13 next year, and some entry-exit points are expected to be ready for extensive use of digital RMB payments during the Games.

Consumers can use digital yuan widely during the Games, not only at the venues but also for various services, including transportation, catering, accommodation, shopping, sightseeing, healthcare, telecommunications, and entertainment.