China’s CBDC Transactions Exceed 83 Billion Digital Yuan

China’s Central Bank Digital Currency is referred to as several names including e-CNY and the digital yuan. The digital yuan has been testing throughout major provinces since April 2020. It was then introduced to the masses during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. The trials have been fairly successful, considering that it was the first to test a CBDC on such an economic scale. During the trials, $9.7 billion worth of eCNY transactions were made. It is very much still in a trial phase, but is reaching widespread use in large percentage of China. By April 2022, the trial was expanded to 23 cities.

Now there are over 4.5 million stores accepting digital yuan payments and many apps utilizing the digital wallets. e-CNY payments totaled 87.5 billion yuan, around $13 billion USD, in 2021. As of May 31 2022, there has already been 83 billion yuan in payments (around $12.3 billion USD).