This is a big development as the Chinese central bank is looking ahead to push the use of Digital Yuan on the popular online platforms in the country. This will be one of the major giveaways to nearly 100,000 customers.
Last Saturday, December 5, China’s e-commerce and online retail giant JD.com announced that it will now accept the Chinese central bank digital currency – Digital Yuan. With more than 400 million active accounts on JD.com, this will be a big push for the acceptance of China’s digital currency.
As Reuters reported, the platform’s fintech arm JD Digital will accept payments in Digital Yuan for some of the products o the online mall. This is an experimental giveaway of Digital Yuan for the local citizens of Suzhou. China has been one of the forerunners to bring its state-owned digital currency to the market. Moreover, citing threats from public cryptocurrencies and private projects like Facebook’s Libra, China has accelerated its work on Digital Yuan.
Suzhou’s lottery program includes 100,000 customers who will get 200 Digital Yuan red envelopes from Chinese central bank PBoC. This is the second such digital lottery currently in the country. Previously, PBoC issues 10 million Digital Yuans to 50,000 randomly selected customers in Shenzhen.
China has been conducting several tests in different cities over the last few months. Last month, PBoC governor Yi Gang said that the central bank has spent 2 billion Digital Yuans in four different transactions.
China Preparing for the Full-Fledged Launch of Digital Yuan
As said China has been working aggressively on the launch of its CBDC, Digital Yuan. This year, it has also accelerated the development process to take the first-mover advantage in the global market.
With Digital Yuan, China is also planning to reduce its dependency on USD for global trade. Analysts predict that this move might help China in its ongoing trade war with the US. However, it’s still a long way to go for the Chinese Digital currency to dethrone the USD.
But China is not alone! Other countries like Russia, Japan, and other are also working on their state-owned digital currencies. Not to forget, the European Central Bank (ECB) has also accelerated the development of the Digital Euro. Recently, ECB President Christine Lagarde also supported introducing the Digital Euro to complement the use of cash.
Back in October 2020, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) proposed a law that recognizes Renminbi in both physical and digital forms. Besides, the law also bans all third-party digital currencies from private players. In addition to JD.com, the Digital Yuan will also be compatible with other big Chinese payment platforms like WeChat and AliPay.
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