China's Central Bank Adds More Digital Yuan Pilot Cities

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has added more cities to test its digital currency. According to the latest official data, the digital yuan has more than 261 million users.

PBOC Adds More Cities to Test Its CBDC

The Chinese central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said Saturday that it is adding more pilot cities to test its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan (e-CNY).

The new pilot cities are Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and six cities in the Zhejiang province that will host the 2022 Asian Games in September. The six cities are Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, and Huzhou.

The digital yuan is already being tested in 10 major cities: Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, and Dalian. It was also tested at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Commenting on its digital currency, the Chinese central bank stated:

Policies must be designed to stimulate creativity and enthusiasm among the banks, technology firms, and the local government in the development, promotion and proliferation of the digital yuan.

“In the process of promotion, competition should be encouraged,” the PBOC added.

Besides the new digital yuan pilot cities announced by the PBOC, Hong Kong plans to soon roll out a pilot scheme for the use of the e-CNY for shopping and dining, Eddie Yue Wai-man, CEO of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), said in February.

According to the latest data from the Chinese central bank, the digital yuan had 261 million unique users at the end of 2021. In addition, transactions worth 87.5 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) have been made using the e-CNY.