WeChat Pay integrates the digital yuan app for faster payments

Popular Chinese app WeChat Pay has integrated the digital yuan app for faster payments. The integration should contribute to the spread of central bank digital currency (CBDC).

WeChat Pay, a popular Chinese app used by the majority of the country, now supports the digital yuan app directly, according to local reports. The Global Times reported that WeChat Pay supports central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Trials and pilot program progress

Currently, users can use their CBDC wallet in WeChat mini-programs to pay with the app. The application will be expanded with more use cases and payment scenarios in the future. There is currently a transaction limit set at 2,000 yuan or $289. The daily limit is 5,000 yuan or $720.

This is another step forward by the country’s officials to expand the use of CBDC. The country’s central bank and other financial organizations have stepped up their efforts in this initiative, and China is looking to rapidly expand CBDC testing.

So far, CBDC trial programs have covered about 15 provinces and activated many tens of millions of yuan digital wallets. This is just the beginning of the process of making the service nationwide, as many citizens need to be brought in.

It’s not all that well received recent reports indicated that China may introduce CBDC expiration dates.

CBDC is also supported by Alipay and WeChat

China has made great efforts to expand and accelerate digital yuan payment options. In December 2022, Alipay announced that it had linked the digital yuan application and offered itself as an express payment option on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms. This allowed users to purchase products and services using CBDC on these platforms.

With the cooperation of WeChat, there are huge improvements in the digital yuan application. The former has more than a billion users, and their introduction through WeChat could provide a suitable take-off for the digital yuan.

Distribution of digital yuan coupons

Although it still needs to attract many more users, CBDC continues to show growth. During the Spring Festival holidays, local governments offered coupons in the form of digital yuan to citizens to encourage adoption.

There have been other occasions when China has distributed digital yuan, mostly in the form of airdrops. However, the results are apparently not perfect, as a PBOC official said in February 2022 that the impact was negligible until then.