Winter Olympicsin the digital yuan number of transactions VisaHe managed to pass. During the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics held at the Beijing National Stadium, more transactions were made with China’s central bank’s digital currency, the digital yuan, aka e-CNY, than Visa.
What makes the news important is that Visa has made a special agreement with the Chinese authorities. Accordingly, Visa would be the only means of payment at the Winter Olympics. Payment through Alipay, WeChat Pay and other popular payment systems would not be accepted. However, the digital yuan still managed to surpass Visa in the number of transactions.
Digital Yuan to Reduce COVID-19 Risk
According to the Beijing Games Organizing Committee, replacing cash with digital currency will significantly reduce human-to-human contact, thus avoiding the risk of the spread of COVID-19. In particular, it is expected that visitors in the quarantine zone exchange fiat money with digital yuan using cryptomats, which will provide great assistance to the country in the fight against the pandemic.
Competitor to the US Dollar
Since the work of the digital yuan began, the Chinese digital currency has been US dollarHe had concerns that he might overthrow his throne. In particular, the fact that the USA could not act as quickly as China on the digital dollar would have increased these concerns, as last year, Republican senators Marsha Blackburn, Cynthia Lummis and Roger Wicker sent a letter to the President of the US Olympic Committee, Susan Lyons, demanding that athletes be banned from using e-CNY.
Indeed, Chinese officials seem extremely confident that the launch of the CBDC will help strengthen the yuan’s international position and break the dollar’s dominance.