Starbucks and McDonalds allegedly not participating in China’s digital yuan testing. China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is still being piloted on a “small scale,” mainly involving the retail and catering industry, according to an Oct. 14 article by news agency Sina Finance.
However, the 19 merchants including Starbucks and Mcdonalds which were rumoured to be apart of the test are actually not using the CBDC for payment thus far. They only accept digital payments through WeChat, Alipay and QuickPass, according to Sina Finance. None of the firms have issued official statements about testing the digital yuan.
The first automated yuan experiments were launched in April 2020 by the Chinese authorities. On Oct. 5, China’s central bank announced that between April and August 2020, the currency’s related wallets processed $162 million in transactions. The central bank held a $1.5 million lottery in order to promote the currency. 2 million people have applied for the lottery to spend the prize on 3,000 participating retailers, according to the latest reports.
[image: TR]
