[Digital Currency Weekly] is a column that focuses on important information, technology applications and regulatory developments of central bank digital currencies such as the digital renminbi, bringing an efficient digital currency light reading experience.
Recently, the digital renminbi has made significant progress in many aspects.
The “Currency Bridge” business has accelerated its implementation, and its cross-border attributes have become increasingly prominent.
On June 6, 2024, the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge project entered the minimum viable product (MVP) stage, and preliminary exploratory work was completed on October 31.
Since this year, pilot institutions in various places have launched currency bridge business, and the digital renminbi cross-border business of commercial banks has shifted from pilot to normal operation.
Some joint-stock banks and small and medium-sized banks have also begun to rely on “bridges” to enter currency bridge cross-border payments.
Jiangsu has achieved remarkable results in promoting the application of digital renminbi.
A press conference on January 21 showed that as of the end of 2025, the cumulative digital renminbi transactions in Jiangsu Province had reached 15 trillion yuan, ranking among the top in the country in terms of transaction scale.
A total of 78.05 million digital RMB wallets have been opened, 4.04 million merchants have been accepted, and more than 100 national first-of-its-kind scenarios and technology products have been implemented.
The multilateral central bank digital currency bridge project has achieved full coverage in 13 cities, with cumulative cross-border transactions of 23.7 billion yuan.
During the “Scottish Super League” competition, the digital RMB publicity publicity reached an audience of 140 million people.
Expert Wang Yongli pointed out that there are three major challenges in U.S. dollar stable coins.
First, fluctuations in the price of government bonds may lead to insufficient reserves; second, inconsistent reserve structures will create room for arbitrage and increase the difficulty of supervision; third, when doing stablecoin credit in decentralized finance, inadequate management may lead to multiple issuances.
In addition, stablecoin legislation may backfire on stablecoins.
Starting from January 1, the digital RMB will be upgraded to version 2.0, from digital cash to digital deposit currency. The balance in the real-name wallet can be paid interest at the current deposit listed rate.
Users can check the interest settlement amount through the digital RMB application after the interest settlement date.
In the future, we hope that operating institutions can provide a richer range of deposit and financial management products.
Bank of Communications actively promotes the integration of blockchain technology and digital currency, and plans to enter the digital RMB system 2.0 era in 2026.
Significant innovations have been achieved in the three major areas of cross-border payments, digital assets, and smart contracts.
For example, in the field of cross-border payments, blockchain is used to achieve efficient “point-to-point” transaction settlement, with transaction volume and activity ranking among the forefront of the industry; in the field of digital assets, it implements on-chain supply chain factoring financing settlement business; in the field of smart contracts, it is widely used in multiple fields to improve financial service levels.
Qingdao People’s Congress representative Shang Jianguang suggested relying on digital renminbi smart contract technology to strengthen the supervision of prepayments for nursing homes.
Establish a special supervision mechanism to gradually achieve full supervision coverage, and prioritize the access of some elderly care institutions to promote full coverage.
Chongqing has also made many achievements in the financial field.
A press conference on January 22 showed that the Chongqing Branch of the People’s Bank of China launched 10 scenarios on the cross-border financial service platform, serving corporate financing settlements exceeding US$75.6 billion.
The China-Singapore bilateral digital renminbi settlement pilot was successfully implemented, and cross-border transactions on the Currency Bridge exceeded 2 billion yuan.
Chongqing’s entire bus and subway lines support digital RMB code scanning, making it the second city in the country to achieve full coverage of digital RMB applications for “above ground buses” and “underground rail”.
In addition, the Postal Savings Bank of China’s Suzhou Zhangjiagang Branch launched the country’s first digital RMB electricity bill business; China Guangfa Bank completed the first multilateral central bank digital currency bridge cross-border remittance business; China Merchants Bank Qingdao Branch applied digital RMB in multiple scenarios to solve problems; and the Shantou Overseas Chinese Pilot Zone launched the first cross-border digital RMB settlement business.
Digital RMB is constantly expanding its application scenarios and injecting new impetus into economic development.
