The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has published a financial report, which included its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), dubbed the Digital Yuan.
According to the statistics report, the balance of the digital yuan in circulation recorded by the bank at the end of 2022 is 13.61 billion, which is about $2 billion. Amidst all of the rising adoption rates of CBDC, the bank recorded a growth of approximately 15.3% last month.
The report also revealed that the addition of the digital yuan to its figures did not reveal any “significant changes”. However, the 13.69 billion e-CNY represents just 0.13% of the 10.47 trillion yuan that was in circulation by December 2022.
Interestingly, the bank’s move of adding digital yuan data to its final report shows its intention to fully adopt and launch the CBDC.
China Push for Digital Yuan
Early last year, PBoC launched a pilot test wallet for its CBDC dubbed e-CNY. The wallet will be used to enable holders to store their digital yuan and conduct pilot trials amongst many other benefits. It also marked a new phase in the bank’s attempt to profoundly develop its digital currency that entered the advanced retail testing stage back in 2020.
Although, the country’s central bank governor, Yi Gang noted that the development of the digital yuan requires a delicate balance between user privacy protection and the prevention of illegal activities.
Countries’ Unending Effort on CBDC
Several countries and jurisdictions are increasingly taking the initiative to launch a CBDC in order to promote financial inclusion and simplify the implementation of monetary and fiscal policy.
The Japanese credit card company, Japan Credit Bureau (JCB) in collaboration with IDEMIA, a french company, and Soft Space, a Malaysian fintech company announced the start of the Japan Central Bank Digital Currencies (JCBDC). The project will allow users to utilize a touch payment infrastructure provided by JCB, amongst several other benefits.
Equally, the Bank of Jamaica is mulling plans to collaborate with the government to promote the use of its CBDC dubbed JamDex as a viable means of payment. With JamDex, the bank aims to further digitize the ecosystem.
