The city administration of Changsha, located in Hunan province of China, has recently reported that in the first quarter of 2023, over 400,000 outlets began accepting the state digital currency as a form of payment.
This has resulted in the total transaction volume with e-CNY in the city surpassing $1.4 billion.
To promote the use of the central bank’s digital currency in the country’s financial system, the Chinese government is expanding payment methods in digital yuan (e-CNY).
Within the first three months of the year, over 22 million personal wallets for CBDC were opened by residents in Changsha, while roughly 800,000 public wallets of legal entities and state bodies were also registered.
In total, there have been over 62 million transactions made since the start of the pilot project, with e-CNY holders able to make settlements in the state digital currency at 420,000 offline stores.
Additionally, the popularity of mobile payments in e-CNY has reached 90% in a year, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), and WeChat Pay, the country’s largest social network, has added the central bank’s digital currency to the funds available on their payment service.