China’s Digital Yuan Just Got a Side Hustle! 💸

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Markets

What to know: 😂

  • The People’s Bank of China will implement a new digital yuan framework on Jan. 1, allowing commercial banks to pay interest on digital currency holdings. 🤯 (Because who needs sleep when you can earn interest?)
  • The digital yuan will transition from digital cash to digital deposit money. 🧠 (Because why have cash when you can have more debt?)
  • An international digital yuan operations center is proposed for Shanghai, aiming to enhance the currency’s global reach. 🌍 (Because nothing says “global” like a centrally controlled digital piggy bank!)

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will launch a new digital yuan framework on Jan. 1, letting commercial banks pay interest on holdings in a move to incentivize broader adoption of the central bank digital currency. 🤑 (Because who doesn’t want their digital cash to also fund a communist utopia?)

The so-called “action plan” will shift the digital yuan (e-CNY) from its current role as digital cash to digital deposit money, Lu Lei, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, wrote in an article published by state newspaper Financial News. 📰 (Because nothing says “innovation” like rebranding a pig as a unicorn!)

“The future digital yuan will be a modern digital payment and circulation means issued and circulated within the financial system, with technical support and supervision provided by the central bank, possessing the attributes of commercial bank liabilities, based on accounts, compatible with distributed ledger technology, and having the functions of a measure of monetary value, store of value, and cross-border payment,” Lei wrote. 🧠 (Because why settle for simple when you can have complexity?)

The plan also proposes to establish an international digital yuan operations centre in Shanghai. 🏙️ (Because nothing says “global dominance” like a Shanghai-based digital bureaucracy!)

The PBOC began working on the digital yuan program in 2014 under the name of the Digital Currency Electronic Payment or DCEP project to research benefits of the CBDC. ⏳ (Because who needs progress when you can have a 10-year delay?)

The central bank launched the digital yuan in April 2022. Since then, it has airdropped e-CNY as part of a pilot program to encourage adoption. 🎁 (Because nothing says “trust” like free money from a government that owns your data!)

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2025-12-29 10:16