Chinese residents in the city of Suzhou made close to 20,000 transactions in a digital yuan trial on e-commerce giant JD.com.
Over the weekend, China witnessed a flood of digital currency activity as people conducted around 20,000 transactions in a trial run of the country’s digital currency through JD.com on Double 12.
According to Global Times news source, JD.com revealed that 80% of participants born in the 1980s and 1990s used the platform as part of the ongoing digital Yuan trials in the country to conduct transactions in the digital currency starting on Friday evening. The minimum transaction was greater than $1,527.
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At the Double Twelve shopping festival, with 10,000 physical storefront locations participating in the event, the real-world digital yuan trial in question was held in the city of Suzhou.
China is aiming to organize more trial events around the nation in an effort to test use cases for the central bank digital currency it is eager to initiate.
Suzhou municipal government reportedly distributed $3 million in digital Yuan in a lottery for residents in order to facilitate them to boost their spending.
“In 2021, China will continue to look for more scenarios to test the digital yuan, but an extensive launch is still unlikely,” said Cao Yin, managing director of the Digital Renaissance Foundation in Shanghai.
He added that managed trials will likely be continued by the Chinese government until officials are confident that the digital currency can be safely released.
Back in April, in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Xiongan, the People’s Bank of China unveiled pilot programs for its digital yuan. As of November, the programs had reportedly handled more than 4 million transactions, with a total value of approximately $300 million.
