China’s Digital Yuan Captures $8.3B in Payments Over 6 Months

China’s digital yuan trials captured $8.3 billion of the country’s payments market in the past six months and $13.68 billion in the past two years, just a sliver of the trillions in payments processed in the country annually, CNBC reported, citing data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Tuesday (Jan. 18).

The number of China’s digital yuan users went up at a quicker pace than transaction volume, with 261 million users by the end of last year, an increase of 240.13 million from the end of June, PBOC’s data indicated.

See also: The Five Things That Will Determine The Success – or Failure – of China’s Digital Yuan Wallet

A limited number of businesses accept the digital yuan — or e-CNY — and there is not a clear advantage people should use the currency instead of Alipay or WeChat Pay. Roughly 10 million businesses had digital yuan wallets as of October 2021, according to state media. Comparatively, Alipay reported in June 2020 that it had over 80 million monthly active merchants.

China is trialing the digital yuan at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin on Feb. 4, to gauge the currency’s appeal among foreigners, PYMNTS reported. The digital yuan will be available for use by athletes, coaches and spectators.

Read more: China to Use Olympics to Test Digital Yuan

In 2020, China launched a digital yuan trial in cities including Suzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xiong’an. Earlier this month, the central bank started allowing the general public in 10 Chinese cities to download a pilot version of the digital yuan app.

Prior to allowing the general public to download the digital yuan app, the central bank’s initial pilots were open to users selected by lottery in certain cities for designated time periods.

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Earlier this month, WeChat said it would soon begin accepting digital yuan payments through WeChat Pay, its digital wallet. An estimated 1.4 billion people use WeChat Pay or its rival Alipay  for mobile payments, PYMNTS reported.