Wechat, China’s biggest and most popular messaging and payment platform will start to support China’s digital yuan, the e-CNY by integrating the central bank digital currency (CBDC), as reported by Coinrivet. The addition of the CBDC to the social platform is expected to boost the adoption rate of the digital yuan.
China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has recently launched its e-CNY application in a soft launch that allows millions of Chinese in the Shanghai region to start using the digital currency. Inclusion to the WeChat platform with 800 million active users will give its adoption an incredible boost, ahead of its planned ‘international’ launch during the Beijing Winter Olympics in February
The Coinrivet report also notes that Alibaba’s Alipay will include the e-CNY into its operations. Citing an analyst at consultancy Trivium China, it is an obvious next step in the roll out of the digital currency.
“Chinese consumers are so locked in Wechat Pay and Alipay, it’s not realistic to convince them to switch to a new mobile payment app. So it makes sense for the central bank to team up with Wechat Pay and Alipay as opposed to doing it on its own.”