The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics marked the moment when the world was first widely introduced to China’s official digital currency: the digital yuan.
According to recent reports from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), more than £222,000 worth of the country’s digital token was reportedly spent daily during the Games. Participants, visitors, and organizers used about 2 million e-CNY tokens each day, equivalent to roughly $316,000. Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute, presented these figures during a webinar hosted by the Atlantic Council. He said:
“I have a rough idea that there are several or a couple of million digital yuan used for payments each day, but I don’t have the exact figures yet.”
Mu added that a breakdown of transactions between Chinese citizens and foreign participants was not yet available. He did note that foreign visitors tended to use hardware wallets more often — referring to e-CNY debit cards that resemble regular credit cards but lack the usual chip and magnetic stripe. Mu Changchun observed:
“Software wallets are mainly used by domestic users.”
The reported daily usage highlights the role the central bank digital currency (CBDC) played during the Olympics. Since its launch in April 2020, the digital yuan’s total transaction volume reached $13 billion by November 2021. The Chinese government used publicity around the Winter Olympics to promote the CBDC: state-run banks set up special ATMs at key locations during the Games so international guests could convert foreign cash to e-CNY or standard yuan notes.
The world’s first public introduction to the digital yuan
Shijingshan District opened a site promoting the Winter Olympics and began accepting payments with the state-backed digital currency, known as e-CNY. China also distributed virtual “red envelopes” containing prototype digital yuan units. Residents in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have been able to test the currency in everyday transactions.
Shijingshan is a western district of Beijing. Its promotional materials stated that more than 200 merchants at designated Olympic locations accepted e-CNY payments, including outlets such as McDonald’s. The currency was initially developed under the project name DCEP — Digital Currency Electronic Payment.
Earlier, the Chinese government announced plans to distribute 200,000 virtual red envelopes, each containing 200 digital yuan (roughly £20). Shanghai announced a similar initiative and planned to hand out 350,000 virtual red envelopes across the city during the Dragon Boat Festival. These giveaways are part of China’s nationwide pilot program to further test the digital currency. So far, the e-CNY has been trialed in eight cities.
Security and privacy concerns
The characteristics of the digital yuan have raised questions about security and privacy. Some U.S. senators have described CBDCs as a “massive security threat to individual users.”
In late 2021, Britain’s security chief Jeremy Fleming warned that CBDC usage could enable Beijing to trace users and monitor international transactions. Despite such concerns, proponents argue that CBDCs present an opportunity to modernize and democratize payment systems by making digital payments more widely accessible and efficient.
Crackdown on mining
While China has advanced the adoption of its CBDC, it has taken a strict stance against cryptocurrencies. Recent reports indicate that as many as 2 million pieces of cryptocurrency mining equipment were confiscated in regions that were previously mining hubs.
Miners who tried to relocate operations to North America reportedly lost millions of dollars while attempting to export hardware to continue crypto mining elsewhere.