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.<\/p>\n
In total, authorities distributed 19.25 million yuan (about $3 million) among 350,000 winners.<\/p>\n
The test set a record for the number of “red envelopes” \u2014 previous experiments involved 200,000.<\/p>\n
According to The Block<\/a>, China had distributed around $39 million in CBDC across six cities at the time of writing.<\/p>\n In June, the Beijing authorities distributed more than $6 million<\/a> in CBDC testing. This is the second lottery in the capital \u2014 in February the administration distributed 10 million digital yuan among residents.<\/p>\n In October 2020, the first mass testing<\/a> in Shenzhen, which organized<\/a> already three distributions. In the trials, CBDC also involved Suzhou, Chengdu and Changsha.<\/p>\n Hong Kong authorities are in talks with mainland China about expansion of digital yuan testing<\/a> in cross-border transactions.<\/p>\n