China’s central bank has launched its CBDC wallet app on the Android and Apple app stores as it gears up for the forthcoming Winter Olympics.
China has released pilot versions of its digital yuan wallet application on mobile phone app stores as the country’s central bank steps up its push to develop its own digital currency, according to Reuters.
The „e-CNY (Pilot Version)” app, developed by the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) digital currency research institute, was available for download on Chinese Android and Apple app stores on Tuesday in Shanghai.
A notice in the app said it is in a research and development pilot phase and is only available to selected users through supported institutions that provide e-CNY services, including major domestic banks.
In development since 2014, the Digital Yuan wallet has undergone extensive field testing across the country, with the pilot run handling transactions worth $5.34 billion as of June 2021. The central bank states that the CBDC had been used for over 70 million payments across more than 1.3 million scenario, according to Finextra.