On Wednesday, China’s central bank governor, Yi Gang, gave an update on the latest digital yuan statistics after almost a year of relative blackout on stats. By late June, the central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot had reached a total of 950 million transactions, up from 360 million in August 2022.
According to Mr. Yi, the cumulative value of eCNY transactions has now hit 1.8 trillion yuan (about $250 bn), an 18 fold increase from the 100.04 billion ($13.9 bn) last August. However, previous updates showed declines in the average transaction value, whereas the latest figures point to a massive increase to 1,895 yuan ($265), compared with 278 renminbi ($39) in 2022.
| Jun 21 | Oct 21 | Dec 21 | May 22 | Aug 22 | Jun 23 | |
| Personal wallets | 20.87m | 140m | 261m | n/a | n/a | 120m |
| Corporate wallets | 3.51m | 10m | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Transaction numbers | 70.75m | 150m | n/a | 264m | 360m | 950m |
| Transaction value | RMB 34.5 | RMB 62 bn | RMB 87.6 bn (?) | RMB 83 bn | RMB 100.04 bn ($14bn) | RMB 1,800 bn ($251bn) |
| Average transaction value | RMB 488 | RMB 413 | n/a | RMB 314 | RMB 278 | RMB 1,895 |
This substantial surge could indicate an increase in corporate use cases, which we predicted last month when the Shanghai Clearing House announced it would support the digital yuan for wholesale commodities transactions. Although China has been recently working on various retail experiments, it has also ramped up wholesale uses to encourage further adoption and improve its statistics.
One thing that needs to be clarified is the number of CBDC wallets, which Mr. Yi reported to be more than 120 million. Previous reports had talked of close to 300 million wallets, but it is possible the governor was speaking of active digital yuan wallets instead of opened ones.
Another caveat is the relatively weak increase in the digital renminbi in circulation. China’s Ministry of Commerce recently said the total eCNY stock stood at 13.61 billion yuan ($1.90 billion) at the end of 2022, but as per Reuters, by the end of June, that number had only risen to 16.5 billion ($2.3 billion).
Cross-border uses with Singapore
During his speech in Singapore, the governor also said he is open to linking the digital yuan to make real-time transfers to Singapore dollar bank accounts. The city-state has other cross-border real-time settlement links unrelated to digital currency with Thailand and India.
