The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has convinced several major Chinese conglomerates to test the CBDC, with the most recent news being that e-commerce giant JD.com is already paying some of its employees in Digital Yuan.
It is well-established that China has been speeding up the use of its CBDC, with the goal of replacing fiat, at least partially.
The Chinese central bank is overseeing several pilot projects across the country and offering Digital Yuan via a lottery to let people test it and give feedback.
JD.com has recently said that it has worked with the PBoC for some trials, while in January 2021, it declared that it was taking into consideration paying some of its employees in Digital Yuan. It was also divulged that the company used PBoC’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment System (DC/EP) for transactions with other businesses.
Just a couple of days ago, Li Bo, the PBoC Deputy Governor, suggested that the bank is planning to expand the scope of the CBDC usage in the market. This means new trials will take place this week. As it was previously reported, international athletes will use CBDC at the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.