e-CNY
China’s CBDC wallet resorts to ages-old tradition to boost adoption
China’s wallet app for its digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) introduced a feature for users to send money in an electronic version of traditional “red packets” to try to attract new users. The new feature was released over the weekend, around one month ahead of the Chinese New Year on Jan. 22, as reported by the South China Morning Post on Dec. 26. The “red packets,” called hongbao in China, are traditionally used for gifting money around the Chinese New Year and other celebrations as a gesture of good luck. The rising use of digital payments has seen virtual red envelopes offered by popular local services such as WeChat Pay and Alipay. Reportedly, the e-CNY app allows a red packet to be sent to only one person, or a “lucky draw” can be set up for a group of people who will...
More than 2.6 million users signed up for the City of Shenzhen’s digital yuan airdrop
According to data obtained from local news outlet Sohu.com, the Shenzhen Chamber of Commerce has recorded over 2.6 million signups for its latest digital yuan, or e-CNY, airdrop. Two months prior, the City of Shenzhen announced that it would be airdropping 30 million of the e-CNY central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to local residents to stimulate consumer spending as a recovery measure to the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown. Users who received the airdrops through a randomized lottery selection could then spend the e-CNY vouchers at various participating merchants’ terminals on Meituan, one of China’s leading e-commerce platforms. The event, which ran from May 30 to June 19, attracted more than 67,000 merchants. Similarly, on Wednesday, the City of Fuzhou ...
China’s central bank to expand deployment of e-CNY
According to China’s state institution Xinhua News Agency, Lan Zou, head of monetary policy at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), announced that the country would be expanding the number of digital yuan (e-CNY) test sites in the country from 11 to 23. They are spread out across 15 out of 31 of China’s provinces and autonomous regions. The PBoC is China’s central bank and is responsible for the development of the e-CNY central bank digital currency, or CBDC. During Wednesday’s press conference, Zou praised the success of the recent e-CNY rollout, stating: “e-CNY trials during the first half of 2022, such as acting as a means of payment during the Beijing Olympics, were spectacularly successful. The e-CNY has demonstrated to be an invaluable tool in ...
