Shanghai authorities hand out $3 million in digital yuan testing

Shanghai authorities distributed central bank digital currency (CBDC) among the population. Lottery winners received “red envelopes” with 55 digital yuan each (about $8.6), Reuters reports.

In total, authorities distributed 19.25 million yuan (about $3 million) among 350,000 winners.

The test set a record for the number of “red envelopes” — previous experiments involved 200,000.

According to The Block, China had distributed around $39 million in CBDC across six cities at the time of writing.

In June, the Beijing authorities distributed more than $6 million in CBDC testing. This is the second lottery in the capital — in February the administration distributed 10 million digital yuan among residents.

In October 2020, the first mass testing in Shenzhen, which organized already three distributions. In the trials, CBDC also involved Suzhou, Chengdu and Changsha.

Hong Kong authorities are in talks with mainland China about expansion of digital yuan testing in cross-border transactions.

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