Digital yuan transactions in China hit $12b in first 5 months of 2022

Transactions of China’s digital yuan reached 83 billion yuan (US$12.3 billion) in the first five months of 2022, Zou Lan, head of monetary policy at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), told a press conference on Wednesday.

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A total of 264 million transactions in the virtual currency were made as of May 31, and over 4.5 million commercial outlets across the country now accept digital yuan as a payment option, Zou added.

The five-month figure is comparable to the virtual currency’s transaction volume for the entirety of 2021, which reached 87.6 billion yuan (US$13 billion).

The PBOC will continue to expand the scope of its pilot programs, develop more trial scenarios, and bolster international cooperation for the digital yuan, Zou noted.

China first rolled out the pilot of its virtual currency in 2019 in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an, and Chengdu. It has since expanded to 23 cities in 15 provincial-level regions across the country.

In April, a digital yuan app for iOS and Android was released on China’s domestic app stores, along with a trial program from WeChat that would allow users on its platform to pay using the virtual currency.

Earlier this year, the digital yuan made its international debut at the Beijing Winter Olympics where it was used as one of the official payment methods during the event.

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Currency converted from Chinese yuan to US dollar: US$1 = 6.74 yuan.