Share this article

Tencent and Ant Group-Backed Banks to Join China's Digital Yuan Trial: Report

The two commercial banks join the six state-owned banks already participating in the CBDC trial.

Updated May 9, 2023, 3:16 a.m. Published Feb 22, 2021, 2:15 p.m.
Chinese yuan
Chinese yuan

MYbank and WeBank – institutions backed by Chinese giants Ant Group and Tencent, respectively – are reportedly set to join the ongoing trial of the digital yuan.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

  • Digital wallets from the two private banks will be added to the People's Bank of China’s digital yuan app alongside those from the six state-owned banks already participating, writes Bloomberg Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
  • MYbank is already helping research and development on the central bank digital currency. The bank told Bloomberg it will "steadily advance the trial pursuant to the overall arrangement of the People’s Bank of China."
  • China has been trying to curb the power of commercial payments companies, per the report, and the addition of MYbank and WeBank to the digital yuan trials could be a setback to firms like Alipay and WeChat Pay.
  • If and when it is launched, the digital yuan would be the first national digital currency from a major country.
  • The trial has so far seem multiple "lotteries" in which Chinese residents have been gifted the token to spend at local merchants with the appropriate technology to accept them.

Read more: China’s Central Bank Is Partnering With SWIFT on a New Joint Venture

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

What to know:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

Pye Finance Raises $5M Seed Round Led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures

Scattered pile of $1 bills (Gerd Altmann/Pixabay, modified by CoinDesk)

The platform aims to make locked Solana staking positions tradable via an onchain marketplace.

What to know:

  • Pye Finance raised a $5 million seed round led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures, with participation from Solana Labs, Nascent and Gemini.
  • The startup is building an onchain marketplace on Solana for time-locked staking positions that can be traded.
  • Pye says the product targets Solana’s large pool of staked SOL, worth roughly $75 billion, and aims to give validators and stakers more flexibility over terms and reward flows.