In An Attempt  To Boost Adoption, China Doles Out Millions Of Dollars In Digital Yuan

Multiple Chinese Regional Authorities have Offered Millions Worth of e-CNY To Attempt to Promote Consumption around the Christmas Season.

Millions of Dollars Worth of China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) has been Distributed the Nation over the Lunar New Year Time Frame in a bid to Boost Its Takeup.

According to a Feb. 6 report in the Global Times, an English-language outlet of the State-ruPeople’s Day to day newspaper, around 200 “activities” for the e-CNY were launched the nation over during the occasion time frame.

This is the first time that the Government has done such Activities since the COVID-19 limitations were loosened.

Multiple urban areas reportedly offered more than 180 million yuan ($26.5 million) worth of the CBDC in programs like appropriations and consumption coupons.

In one example cited by the outlet, the Shenzhen local government gave out more than 100 million yuan ($14.7 million) worth of e-CNY to finance the city’s catering industry.

A Feb. 1 China Day to day report said Hangzhou issued every occupant a 80 yuan ($12) e-CNY voucher on Jan. 16.The total cost to the city was around $590,000.

Some of these initiatives proved to be extremely well known among residents.

Citing data from the online business platform Meituan, the Global Times report stated that e-CNY offered by the Hangzhou regional Government for the New Year Celebrations was taken up by residents in nine seconds or less.
The last couple of months has seen the government enact different targets and features to boost the use of the CBDC.

On Feb. 1, senior ruling party officials in the city of Suzhous set a tentative key performance indicator for the end of 2023 of having 2 trillion yuan ($300 billion) worth of e-CNY transactions in the city.

The target is aggressive considering cumulative e-CNY transactions just crossed 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) in October, two years after the CBDC’s launch.

In a bid to attract new users, in late December last year, the e-CNY wallet app introduced the capacity to send “red bundles” called hongbao in China, which is used for gifting money around special times of year.

The wallet app als received an update toward the beginning of January allowing users to make contactless payments utilizing Android telephones — regardless of whether their gadget is without internet or power.

In December, a former Chinese central banker called the consequences of the e-CNY trials “not ideal,” and conceded, “utilization has been low, highly inactive.”