JD.com has been using China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment, or DCEP, system to pay the salaries of some employees since January. The e-commerce firm revealed the news on Sunday while announcing its participation in the one-year DCEP trial show at the fourth Digital China Summit in Fuzhou slated for Sunday and Monday. Commenting on its digital yuan adoption journey, the company stated that apart from paying staff salaries, JD has also utilized the DCEP in business-to-business payments to partner firms as well as cross-bank settlements. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, JD Technology and Digital Currency Research Institute — the company’s …

Beijing’s bid to better control money laundering and illicit transactions through a fully traceable central bank digital currency could pose a threat to the country’s popular gambling hub Macau. A hotspot for tourists — of which 70% come from mainland China — the region’s gambling business could reportedly be adversely impacted by China’s use of a digital yuan to clamp down on illegal money flows and keep its capital account better sealed. Revenues from Macau’s casino junkets — the longtime beneficiaries of Macau’s position as the only administrative region in China where gambling is legal — had already been squeezed …

Li Bo, recently appointed deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, reportedly spoke on the benefits of crypto as an investment tool while highlighting regulatory uncertainty in the country surrounding digital assets. According to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, Li made the comments at the Boao Forum in southern China on Sunday. The PBoC head said there are still regulatory risks for the central bank, citing its previous ban on initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency exchanges. Li reportedly said the PBoC will “continue to maintain the current measures and practices” as it explores any potential change in regulation, …

South China’s Hainan Province, which administers the prefectural Sansha City on a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, will run a two-week campaign later this month to promote the use of the digital yuan among island residents. The city, established in 2012, is on the front line of disputes over territorial claims in the South China Sea and is unusual in being both the People Republic of China’s smallest city by population and its largest by geographic reach — formally encompassing over 280 islands and their surrounding waters, reaching almost 800,000 square miles of sea and land area. Between …

China has completed its first cross-border pilots of the digital yuan with Hong Kong. Wang Xin, director of the People’s Bank of China research bureau, said that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the PBoC have conducted technical tests on the cross-border use of China’s central bank digital currency. The official announced the news at a Thursday press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, local news agency Sina Finance reports. The news comes shortly after Mu Changchun, head of the PBoC's digital currency research institute, proposed a set of global CBDC rules last week. Speaking at …

China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, will provide backup for major retail payment services like AliPay and WeChat Pay as its key objective, according to an official at the People’s Bank of China. Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency research institute, claimed that China’s digital yuan is needed to ensure financial stability in case “something happens” to AliPay or WeChat Pay, the South China Morning Post reports. Speaking at an online panel discussion on Thursday, Mu stated that Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay account for 98% of the mobile payment market in China, …

Chinese authorities are willing to ensure maximum user privacy for the country’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, according to an official at the People’s Bank of China. Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency research institute, spoke of China’s digital yuan privacy capabilities at the 2021 China Development Forum on Sunday, local news agency Sina Finance reported. Mu stated that a completely anonymous CBDC “is not feasible” because a national digital currency must meet requirements related to Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and anti-tax evasion. However, that doesn’t mean that China’s digital yuan lacks user privacy, …

China’s determination to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the utilization of blockchain technology was evidenced again this week, after the release of the country’s latest five-year development plan. The word “blockchain” was reportedly mentioned for the first time in the 14th of China’s regular five-year plans, which lay out the country’s economic priorities for the period from 2021 to 2025, according to local news outlet Pingwest. China’s exploration into new technology has been unceasing in recent years. From its ongoing scheme to roll out a central bank digital currency to its utilization of digital biometric hardware …

China’s central bank is pushing exposure to its ongoing national digital currency pilot by enlisting two major private banks in the project. According to a Monday Bloomberg report, MYbank and WeBank will help the People's Bank of China extend its user exposure in the ongoing pilots of its central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. As part of the integration, MYbank’s service will soon be introduced to the PBoC’s digital yuan app, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The e-wallets by MYbank and WeBank will reportedly have exactly the same functions as those from the six state-owned lenders in …

Residents of the Longhua District in the Chinese city of Shenzhen will have a chance to participate in a forthcoming lottery event that aims to encourage the adoption of the country's new central bank digital currency — known alternatively as the DC/EP, digital renminbi, or digital yuan. Announced on Jan. 20, the lottery is scheduled for Jan. 26, when lots will be drawn to select the 100,000 winners who will each receive a festive "red envelope" packet containing 200 yuan ($31) in DC/EP. The total currency issued and distributed for the event will therefore amount to 20 million yuan ($3.1 …

The Bank of France successfully piloted a central bank digital currency — or CBDC — experiment in December, using the technology to settle monetary fund shares on a private blockchain platform for the first time. As announced by Le Banque de France on Jan. 19, the pilot commenced on Dec. 17, and saw 2 million euros ($2.4 million) worth of simulated shares purchased and sold by investors using a CBDC. The pilot took place with distributed ledger technology provided by SETL — a UK-based regulated blockchain services provider, which also provided the CBDC stablecoin. SETL’s IZNEZ record-keeping platform was used …

The COVID-19 crisis has done little to dampen China’s interest in becoming the first major economy to distribute a central bank digital currency. Quite the contrary, its digital currency/electronic payment project appears to be picking up speed. In the Shenzhen region, for example, 100,000 local citizens this month received for free a total of $31 million digital yuan via lottery, and now residents can use ATMs to convert digital yuan to cash on a test basis. Meanwhile, the Postal Savings Bank of China has reportedly developed physical wallet cards on which to store digital yuan, something useful for the elderly …