JD.com partners with local bank for digital yuan giveaway

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One of China’s largest e-commerce platforms is giving away digital yuan in partnership with a local bank. JD.com teamed up with the Bank of Communications to give away $2.5 million in a lottery in two major Chinese cities.

Giveaways and lotteries have become the most popular method China has been using to promote the adoption of the yet-to-be-launched digital yuan. It started with local governments which were doing the giveaways, but private companies have since taken up the mantle and are giving away millions of dollars in lotteries every other month.

JD.com has been one of those leading this new charge by private enterprises. It has now partnered with the fifth largest bank in China in the giveaway. The current giveaway comes a month after the success of the first giveaway in which the two distributed $3.1 million.

As with the other giveaways, registered users will be entered into a lottery, with the lucky winners selected randomly to receive one of the 400,000 digital yuan packages. Users can sign up on the JD.com app.

JD.com is one of about two dozen publicly traded firms in China offering digital yuan products. According to the China Securities Daily, these companies have started or are in the process of offering services including hardware devices and digital yuan payments for school fees. 

The hardware devices include POS machines and ATMs giving easier access to the CBDC, which is also known as the digital currency electronic payment (DC/EP). The hardware wallets will be integrated with smart devices such as wearables and IoT machines, the outlet reports. Four banks have already released their hardware wallets.

Chinese companies are also seeking to offer DC/EP payments for popular services. Last year, a Chinese firm introduced digital yuan payments for bus fare payment while earlier this year, another company offered the first platform enabling payment of school fees via digital currency.

Chinese banks have also seen an influx of clients seeking to open digital yuan wallets. In their half-year financial reports, a number of top banks revealed they had opened millions of digital renminbi wallets. The China Construction Bank, which is the second-largest, opened the highest number at 7.2 million wallets, with the market leader Industrial and Commercial Bank of China opening 3.6 million by end of June.

To learn more about central bank digital currencies and some of the design decisions that need to be considered when creating and launching it, read nChain’s CBDC playbook.

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