The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have taken significant steps to expand the Digital Yuan (e-CNY)’s reach beyond mainland China.On May 17, the HKMA announced a pilot scheme enabling the use of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for cross-boundary payments.According to the authorities, this e-CNY scheme will provide safer, more convenient, and innovative cross-border retail payments between Hong Kong and Mainland residents.This initiative also allows Hong Kong residents to set up personal e-CNY wallets with their mobile numbers, but they cannot perform peer-to-peer transactions among themselves.Under this scheme, Hong Kong residents can fund their digital yuan wallets through 17 retail banks via the Faster Payment System (FPS). The statement added:“The interoperability between the FPS and the e-CNY system operated by the Digital Currency Institute (DCI) of the PBoC also marks the first linkage of a faster payment system with a central bank digital currency system in the world.”Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA, stated that the e-CNY application and wallet would gradually gain more functionality as more retail merchants adopt the system. He said:“By expanding the e-CNY pilot in Hong Kong and leveraging the 24×7 operating hours and real-time transfer advantages of the FPS, users may now top up their e-CNY wallets anytime, anywhere without having to open a Mainland bank account, thereby facilitating merchant payments in the Mainland by Hong Kong residents.”Moreover, HKMA said it plans to upgrade the e-CNY wallets to higher tiers through real-name verification and will support corporate use cases for cross-border trade settlements in the future.This initiative continues China’s efforts to popularize its CBDC program. The country already uses the currency to pay some of its workers monthly salaries.Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin’s potential. He imparts insights on a range of topics like DeFi, hacks, mining and culture, underlining transformative power.Also known as “Akiba,” Liam is a reporter, editor and podcast producer at CryptoSlate. He believes that decentralized technology has the potential to make widespread positive change. Stay ahead with crypto’s key news and insights. Delivered directly, every day.ICBC compared Bitcoin to gold and said Ethereum has established itself as “digital oil” capable of powering myriad applications across the web3 ecosystem.China has continued to publicly maintain a hostile stand towards crypto trading activities.Bloomberg is reporting that both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are expected to be approved as early as Monday.Top Chinese mutual funds have are exploring Bitcoin via ETFs in Hong Kong after years of avoiding the industry due to the 2021 ban.CryptoSlate’s latest market report dives deep into the effects corporate Bitcoin purchases have on the market.Disclaimer: Our writers’ opinions are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of CryptoSlate. None of the information you read on CryptoSlate should be taken as investment advice, nor does CryptoSlate endorse any project that may be mentioned or linked to in this article. Buying and trading cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk activity. Please do your own due diligence before taking any action related to content within this article. Finally, CryptoSlate takes no responsibility should you lose money trading cryptocurrencies.
