There was a total of $5 billion in transactions with China’s new central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the end of June, the Peoples’ Bank of China said in a new report.
The report says the CBDC had been applied in more than 1.3 million scenarios, including things like bill payments, transportation, shopping, catering services and government payments.
There were more than 20.87 million personal wallets and more than 3.5 million corporate wallets that used the CBDC.
The number of transactions totaled over 70.75 million.
The report notes that while some tests had involved real users and were done in different scenarios, others were done in large batches. The goals of the pilots were to make sure the CBDC was stable and user-friendly, to see the business and technological designs, and to show people how the design of the currency would work.
The PBOC also said that, for the first time, the CBDC would be compatible with smart contracts.
The central bank said in the report that the digital yuan wallets would be tiered based on how much personal information provided, which will then go into determining balance and transaction limits. By default, users can open “least privileged” wallets, and the report says those users can later upgrade if they want.
China has been fast-tracking its digital yuan tests and done tests in numerous cities, including Chengdu, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.
China has become the country with the most advanced CBDC, and has thus far handed out somewhere around $41.5 million in digital yuan as it gauged how users would respond and how it would work on the markets.
The project has been going on for around eight years and has featured tests where digital yuan is given out via lottery and involving select merchants like JD.com and some merchants in the Wangfujing business district. There is also a plan to test the CBDC at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
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