China’s CBDC Has Been Used for $9.7B of Transactions

Some 140 million people have opened wallets for the “eCNY.”

By Jamie Crawley

Nov 3, 2021 at 10:13 a.m. UTC

Updated Nov 3, 2021 at 3:05 p.m. UTC

Jamie Crawley

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.

Follow @JamieCrawleyCD on Twitter

China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) has been used to conduct 62 billion yuan ($9.7 billion) of transactions as of the end of October.

A People’s Bank of China (PBOC) official said Wednesday that 140 million people had opened wallets for the digital yuan, or “eCNY,” according to a report by Reuters.
Mu Changchun, director-general of the digital currency institute of China’s central bank, told Hong Kong’s Fintech Week conference that over 1.5 million merchants could accept payments using eCNY wallets.
In addition, 10 million corporate accounts have been created, Bloomberg reported.
The figures compare with those at the end of June, when there were 34 million individual and corporate eCNY wallet users who had conducted transactions worth $5.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.
There is no official launch date for the CBDC, Mu said. The eCNY has been undergoing trials in cities across China over the last year.

UPDATE (Nov. 3, 10:32 UTC): Adds corporate accounts, comparison with end-June figures.

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