The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) reportedly intends to spread the span of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) – e-CNY – to 4 provinces of China, among which Guangdong is also one.

As per a report published on Tuesday by the South China Morning Post, the deputy governor of PBoC – Fan Yifei – mentioned at a Suzhou-based occasion that the central bank would roll out the tests of e-CNY across the provinces of Sichuan, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Hebei.

CBDC Trials of China to Be Extended to 4 Densely Populated Provinces

With a cumulative population of nearly 360M people, this step would provide an enormous expansion to the CBDC strategy of the PBoC. Formerly, it was considerably limited to separate cities, some selected areas, and a few merchants.

The initial CBDC trials in the country have been started in 2020’s April. Since then, the attention of the central bank has been focused on ultimately utilizing the digital yuan in the place of cash.

In January this year, reportedly up to 261M consumers have organized digital wallets to keep e-CNY with having a facility to conduct transactions of more than $13B in worth.

In addition to this, the country released the digital currency to visit athletes from outside China during the event of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as well as to permit for the utilization of e-CNY for payment purposes in particular public buses in the previous month.

At the moment, neither the authorities in China nor the central bank of the country has declared any strategy to make the central bank’s digital currency accessible throughout the country’s whole jurisdiction. A fan mentioned that the expansion of the project to the above-mentioned 4 provinces would take place at an adequate time.

The United States Still Contemplates Launching a CBDC

In 2020’s October, the Bahamas turned into the initial country that formally introduced a nationwide CBDC project named Sand Dollar. Both China and Nigeria launched the trials of their digital currency projects respectively in trials, while the United States – the biggest economic power across the globe – has not declared a guaranteed strategy to release a digital dollar yet.

As included in the digital assets-based executive law of the President of the United States – Joe Biden – in March, the departments and agencies of the country’s government have initiated delving into the CBDC structures and the likely hazards and benefits associated with them.