Beijing, China’s capital city, is set to give away $6.3 million worth of its digital yuan in its latest CBDC test
Continuing with the testing of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), China is giving away 40 million yuan (around $6.3 million) to the people of Beijing in a lottery.
Beijing, China’s capital city, is set to give away $6.3 million worth of its digital yuan in its latest CBDC test
Announcing the news on Tuesday, the Beijing Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau said Beijing residents can apply for the 40 million renminbi through a pair of banking apps. Besides, it will give away 200,000 red envelopes, containing 200 digital yuan (around $31) each, to local residents.
Residents willing to participate in the lottery will have to register through apps of the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The deadline to register is June 7. Winners can spend the digital currency with selected merchants.
This is not the first time Beijing giveaway. In February, the city distributed 10 million digital yuan (worth about $1.5 million at the time) to 50,000 local residents. Beijing eventually plans to use digital yuan in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
To date, China has conducted 10 digital yuan lottery campaigns across 5 cities. Those campaigns started in October 2020, and a total of 230 million digital yuan (worth around $36 million) has been given away.
This lottery is another trial for the digital yuan, however, China has yet to initiate a nationwide distribution of the digital currency.
Shenzhen and Suzhou each run three gift-giving campaigns. Beijing is currently going through its second run while Chengdu and Changsha have each completed their first trial. China has more than doubled its total donation in digital yuan experiments in recent months. As of February, that was $17 million across three cities.
China started to research and development of a digital yuan in 2014 and has yet to announce an official launch date. But it is ahead of many other major economies that are still exploring the idea of a digital currency, including the US and UK.
Read more:
- KBC, One Of The Largest Bank In Belgium, Announced Its Plans To Launch Its Own Cryptocurrency KBC Coin
- Zhou Xiaochuan: China Has No Plan To Use The E-CNY To Replace The US Dollar’s Status As Reserve Currency Or The International Payments Currency