China plans to use its digital yuan at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games

The People’s Bank of China is planning to put its digital currency to use at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.

According to a Reuters report, Sun Guofeng, the head of the monetary policy department at PBoC, said that the bank does not have a timetable for the rollout of the digital currency. However, going by Sun’s statement, PBoC is likely to launch it before the 2022 Winter Olympic Games as they plan to use it during the international sports event.

The news comes as China is ramping up pilots for the digital yuan. At present, the Chinese central bank is conducting trials of its digital currency across Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan and Chengdu. 

Cointelegraph also reported that the bank was planning to roll out the digital currency for pilot tests across other regions including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Area. 

A recent official statement from the bank also noted that they were only testing the digital yuan for small retail transactions. Busting rumors about the inability to convert the digital currency into banknotes, the central bank also clarified that the digital yuan was a legal tender that users can convert it into banknotes at a 1:1 ratio. 

While there is still too little information about China’s digital currency to say anything for certain about its launch and use cases, it is quite evident that the bank is making rapid progress toward the launch of the digital yuan.