By the end of June 2023, China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) transaction volume reached 1.8 trillion yuan (~$249.33 billion), showing an 18x growth from last year.
During a speech at a conference in Singapore, Yi Gang, Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and President of the China Society for Finance and Banking of the PBoC, said that the e-CNY showed a steady growth trend in the level of use as a means of payment.
He added that about $250 billion (1.8 trillion yuan) worth of transactions have been made in China since the CBDC pilot launch. Notably, last August, e-CNY transaction volumes didn’t exceed $14 billion (~100 billion yuan). Overall, 120 million users completed about 950 million transactions using the PRC’s state digital currency in a year and a half, with each transaction averaging ~$260.
Yi Gang also noted that the CBDC’s total volume is still insignificant in relation to China’s population of ~1.4 billion. According to him, there are approximately 16.5 billion digital yuan (~$2.3 billion) in circulation, which is only 0.16% of China’s money supply. It should be noted that six months ago, there were 13.61 billion e-CNY in circulation, which was about 0.13% of all money in circulation in the PRC, and this fact also demonstrates the growing popularity of CBDCs in the country.
The Chinese authorities are actively popularizing the state digital currency, expanding the options for its use, including for cross-border trade. Thanks to integration into WeChat, about half of the country’s residents have access to e-CNY.
