Since last summer, China has witnessed a significant growth in the number of people who use its new digital currency, as central banks around the world experiment with creating their own tokens to speed up payments and compete with the likes of bitcoin.
By the end of last month, more than 140 million people had opened wallets for the new digital yuan, which had been used for transactions totaling 62 billion yuan ($9.7 billion), a People's Bank of China official said in quotes by Reuters on Wednesday.
This represents a significant increase from July, when there were 21 million "e-CNY" wallet users who transacted for a total of $5.3 billion.
China has been experimenting with digital currencies through a variety of regional pilot programs and trials that have taken place around the country.
The e-CNY will go nationwide at some point in the future, but no specific date has been set yet, Mu Changchun, director-general of the digital currency institution of China's central bank, said.
Mu, who spoke at Hong Kong's Fintech Week conference, said 1.5 million retailers are currently accepting payments through e-CNY wallets. In addition, customers can pay for utilities, transit, and government services using their accounts.
In a report by Bloomberg News, a total of around 10 million corporate accounts have been created on top of individual user accounts.
Meanwhile, China has taken active moves to foster the development of its eCYN while simultaneously cracking down on cryptocurrencies that are not under state supervision.
China bas declared a ban on bitcoin transactions in September, following the expulsion of cryptocurrency miners earlier in the year. On Wall Street, market observers are upbeat on central bank digital currencies, despite the recent volatility in the sector.
CBDCs, in a report released on Wednesday by JPMorgan, may save global companies upwards of $100 billion per year in transaction costs associated with cross-border payments.
The analysis, which was prepared in collaboration with the consulting company Oliver Wyman, estimates that banks incur overall transaction costs of more than $120 billion each year in order to make wholesale payments across borders.
In a statement, Oliver Wyman partner Jason Ekberg said the case for CBDCs to solve pain points in cross-border payments is "very compelling."
