Chengdu is said to be the next place to roll out another city-wide test of China’s central bank digital currency.
Chinese payments media Mpaypass cited an internal memo from the Bank of Communications in a report on Monday. Per the bank’s internal note, the Southwestern Chinese city is set to start the test on January 27 with the local government giving away 30 million digital yuan, worth $4.6 million.
On top of that, Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com will give away another 20 million digital yuan, worth $3.1 million, that can be spent on online shopping, the report added.
The free digital yuan will be issued via a lottery, which is the same with what the city of Shenzhen and Suzhou did in previous tests since last October.
Based on the report, the registration for the lottery is expected to start on January 27 while lottery-winners will be able to spend the free digital yuan in local merchants from February 4 to February 26 throughout the Lunar New Year festival.
The local government has not yet published any announcement of the test through its official media channel. It’s not yet clear how many residents will be able to participate in the trial.
Meanwhile, the report said the city of Suzhou, which had its first digital yuan test in December, is set to kick off a second city-wide trial on January 27 with an issuance of 40 million digital yuan, worth $6.1 million
