China’s pandemic-hit economy needs all the help it can get after a surge in COVID-19 infections triggered mass lockdowns across the country. In an attempt to revive consumption, the southern city of Shenzhen used Beijing’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to airdrop free money to local residents. A similar strategy was used in the northern Hebei province, where even more digital yuan was deployed. Think of all the things governments can do when they have full control over fiat money on-ramps. This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter explores China’s helicopter CBDC strategy, the latest funding news from the world of …

According to local news outlet Shanghai Securities News, the city of Shenzhen will airdrop 30 million digital Chinese yuan (e-CNY) to local residents in an attempt to revitalize consumer spending. The airdrop is a joint effort between the city of Shenzhen and Meituan Dianping, China's leading food delivery app. As per instructions, users would need to first login to the Meituan app, sign up for the incentive, and then potentially receive the e-CNY rewards as part of a lottery draw. If chosen, the e-CNY is then dispensed to users and can be spent at more than 15,000 in-app merchant terminals …

Lawmakers in the United States are moving to protect the country from the potential undesirable impacts of the global adoption of China’s national digital currency. Three Republican senators, Tom Cotton, Mike Braun and Marco Rubio, introduced a bill on Wednesday, aiming to limit the use of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the United States. The bill is referred to as “Defending Americans from Authoritarian Digital Currencies Act” and proposes to prohibit the use of China’s digital currency payment system, e-CNY, for U.S. app stores and other purposes. The term “app store” covers all publicly accessible websites, software apps …

Residents in three major Chinese cities have begun paying tax, stamp duty and social security premiums using the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) — the digital yuan (e-CNY). According to a domestic news report, a number of government agencies in the Zhejiang province — located just south of Shanghai — are currently running real-world trials programs that involve citizens using the digital yuan to pay taxes. The Zhejiang Taxation Bureau is working with the country’s central bank — the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) — to explore a variety of taxation payment methods using the digital yuan. The PBoC …

American investment firm VanEck believes that Bitcoin has double the upside of gold and could be worth as much as $4.8 million per coin if it becomes the global reserve asset. That’s a big ‘if’ of course, and VanEck thinks the Chinese Yuan is a more likely contender. The lofty assessment for BTC came in a March 30 insights piece written by VanEck’s Head of Active EM Debt Eric Fine and Chief Economist Natalia Gurushina who attempted to compare the price implications for gold and Bitcoin (BTC) if either were to be adopted as the backing for global currency regimes. …

Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation and former head of data, blockchain and digital assets at the World Economic Forum, said the digital yuan may present certain challenges for the United States. However, regulators and lawmakers may want consider how to encourage digital innovation, as China is already "massively tech forward" for its residents. Speaking to Cointelegraph during Austin’s SXSW festival, Warren said that though she believed China’s digital yuan was unlikely to significantly affect retail payments in the United States, the adoption of the technology surrounding it could impact the dollar’s global dominance. The CCI CEO …

Jake Chervinsky, head of policy at crypto advocacy group the Blockchain Association, said the United States should be careful to avoid a “totalitarian nightmare” in its potential launch of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Speaking at Austin’s SXSW festival on Tuesday in a panel on ‘Financial Surveillance in a Cashless Society’, Chervinsky said though U.S. President Joe Biden had issued an executive order establishing a national strategy for cryptocurrencies in the United States, there were potential privacy concerns over the country launching a CBDC. Empowering a government to surveil its citizens using a CBDC, “sounds like the kind …

Nine Republican senators have backed legislation aimed at directing policy at U.S. government agencies around concerns China’s digital yuan may be used to circumvent sanctions and compromise users' personal information. In a Wednesday announcement, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, backed by seven other Republican senators, proposed the ‘Say No To the Silk Road Act’ — a bill that would require certain government agencies to report on China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The two senators said they had concerns over digital surveillance and privacy in China’s rolling out its CBDC, both for its citizens and …

On the day of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, there were reportedly more transactions made in China’s central bank digital currency than those through Visa. In a Wednesday report from the Wall Street Journal, a person familiar with the matter said transactions in digital yuan significantly outnumbered those of Visa on Feb. 4 at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest — the location of the opening ceremony of the 34th Olympic Winter Games. However, many of the retailers allowing purchases with China’s central bank digital currency, the digital yuan — or e-CNY …

With the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics completed and all competing athletes currently in China, two members of Congress are warning of the potential dangers of using digital yuan at the events. According to a Friday report from Reuters, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Feb. 3 expressing concern that the Chinese government could use the games to promote greater adoption of its central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. The country has been conducting trials of the CBDC since April 2020, later announcing …

Though athletes and support staff arriving for the Beijing 2022 Olympics still have the option of using digital currency for payments at many venues, the international test run of China’s CBDC is reportedly facing hurdles due to the pandemic. According to a Monday report from CNN, athletes, officials, and journalists for the country’s olympics games are largely separated from the population of China in a quarantine “bubble” to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These precautions combined with the Chinese government deciding to limit the number of in-person spectators may result in far fewer people testing the digital yuan as a …

The internet is filled with Bitcoin (BTC) price forecasts. For example, some analysts believe that the flagship crypto will hit $1 million per coin in the next 10 years, while others think BTC price will eventually drop to zero. Without dwelling on predictions that are five or more years ahead of us, let us focus on what Bitcoin could do, say, in the next six months? Again, the forecasts vary drastically. For instance, Antoni Trenchev, the founder of Nexo Finance, sees Bitcoin price hitting $100,000 by mid-2022. On the other end of the spectrum is Sussex University professor Carol Alexander, …