China’s central bank is handing out Rmb10 million ($1.5 million) worth of free digital tokens to people living in a suburb of the tech-heavy city of Shenzhen this week, as it pushes ahead with plans to roll out a national virtual currency.
The test scheme – a pilot-within-a-pilot – started on Monday and will run to the end of Sunday.
Citizens of Luohu, located on the border with Hong Kong, were given 50,000 digital vouchers, each with a face value of Rmb200, which they can spend in any of 3,400 designated retail outlets, from petrol stations to supermarkets.
Front-runner
Regulators in Beijing and beyond will be watching closely.
Thanks for your interest in Euromoney!
To unlock this article:
