According to several sources, China officially launched the next round of its pilot program for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) on Tuesday. In the city of Guanzhou, you can now pay for public bus trips with the digital yuan (e-CNY) on 10 lines. This is possible for the first time in the country. To do this, passengers simply need to download the e-CNY app, deposit money and scan the QR code located in the payment area of the bus to pay for their trip.
The city of Ningbo announced the day before that passengers can now pay with the e-CNY at 125 subway stations. Ningbo is the ninth city in China to test e-CNY payment on its subway lines. there, too, passengers can easily scan a code and pay.
The Chinese government has rapidly expanded the benefits of e-CNY this year. Since last week, the CBDC in the city of Guangzhou has been able to pay the contributions to the Housing Fund for employees. In order to boost consumption again after the severe coronavirus lockdowns, the government, in cooperation with the Meituan delivery service and the e-commerce platform, has JD.com e-CNY-Air-Drops, which can be redeemed at participating locations.
According to the last data update on June 20, over 6 million users had ordered with the e-CNY from Meituan. Since July JD.com according to its own data, over 4 million e-commerce transactions worth an estimated CNY 900 million (US $ 131.6 million) have been processed since the platform accepted the e-CNY as a means of payment. In the first five months of 2022, e-CNY transactions worth about 830 billion ($ 121.4 billion) were settled.
