China’s Central Bank To Hold $1.5M Digital Yuan Giveaway
- $1.5 million worth of the digital yuan will be given away as “red envelopes” to 50,000 citizens of Shenzhen’s Luohu District.
- Winners can spend their reward in one of the 3,389 merchants in the district between 12 Oct. and 18 Oct., though any unspent funds will be taken back after the final date.
The People’s Bank of China in Beijing, China on September 3, 2015. Shutterstock
People’s Bank of China (PBoC) will be giving away around $1.5 million worth of its digital yuan to the citizens of the city of Shenzhen as part of a new CBDC trial, local news outlet Sina Finance reported on 9 October.
According to the publication, the giveaway is a collaboration between the country’s central bank and the district of Shenzhen, which is one of the nine locations where the Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DC/EP) system is being tested. The initiative will see 10 million digital yuan being given away as “red envelopes”, a traditional way to give cash gifts in China, to 50,000 recipients through a lottery.
The red envelopes will each be worth 200 Renminbi, and will be accepted in over 3,000 merchants in Shenzhen’s Luohu District. The window to sign up for the giveaway started on 9 October, and winners from the lottery can start spending their gifts from 12 October. There are some limitations, however. The report noted that the gifts cannot be transferred between individuals or deposited to one’s own bank account, and that any unused amount from the red envelops will be taken back after 18 October.
The report came only days after an official from PBoC revealed some statistics around the bank’s digital yuan trials. The Deputy Governor of PBoC claimed that more than 3 million transactions have already been conducted using the digital yuan between April and August. In this period, 113,300 personal and 9,000 corporate digital wallets were able to transfer 1.1 billion RMB (around $162 million) in the cities of Shenzhen, Suzhou and Xiong’an, where the pilot took place.
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- The PBOC official noted that platforms can integrate the CBDC in the short term using QR codes, and focus on upgrading their payment tools in the long run.
Office building of the People’s Bank of China. Flickr
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