China CBDC Digital Yuan To Enter New Era on Jan. 1 — Here’s What’s Changing

Key Takeaways

• Starting Jan. 1, 2026, China’s digital yuan will become interest-bearing, transitioning to a digital deposit model to drive adoption. 

• The PBOC’s new action plan enhances the e-CNY infrastructure by adding reserves, security, and improved management to facilitate broader adoption.

• This evolution positions China as a leader in CBDCs, enhancing domestic payments and the yuan’s role in global trade.

The start of the new year is expected to bring significant changes for China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), known as the e-CNY or digital yuan. 

Reports indicate that digital yuan is set to undergo significant transformations aimed at enhancing its functionality, adoption, and integration into the broader financial ecosystem.

China’s digital yuan has been in the testing phase for over five years now, but despite this, it has onboarded millions of users across both the public and private sectors.

In 2026, nearly a decade after starting the first trials of the e-CNY, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Vice Governor Lu Lei announced a pivotal shift from its current pilot phase to a more mature operational model.

The core evolution involves transitioning the e-CNY from a “digital cash” equivalent to an account-based “digital deposit money” system, aligning with M1, which includes cash plus demand deposits.

This makes the digital yuan interest-bearing, a first for any CBDC worldwide, where wallet balances will function as liabilities of commercial banks under PBOC oversight.

Earlier, the e-CNY operated like physical cash in digital form, with no interest accrual and limited to specific transaction types.

These latest upgrade builds on the ongoing e-CNY trial, which has already seen transaction volumes reach over 7 trillion yuan (approximately $986 billion) by mid-2024.

These transactions were dominated mainly by retail and domestic use cases. 

The new period emphasises full-scale integration in retail, government services, and international trade, rather than trial programs.

Starting Jan.1, users can earn interest on e-CNY holdings, potentially incentivizing greater adoption by making it more attractive than non-interest-bearing alternatives.

The core changes announced for digital yuan would result in e-CNY wallet balances being categorized by liquidity levels, with bank-type institutions required to hold reserves against them, similar to traditional deposits.

This adds a layer of regulatory structure to ensure stability.

The system will remain compatible with distributed ledger technologies (like blockchain), while retaining core monetary functions such as serving as a unit of account, store of value, and medium for cross-border payments.

The interest-bearing model addresses poor institutional adoption rates by expanding practical applications such as seamless integration with payroll, loans, and investments.

It also intends to make e-CNY a standard in everyday transactions, decreasing friction in conversions, for example, from e-CNY to traditional deposits, which previously incurred charges.

For individual users and businesses, the transition could mean additional incentives to retain and utilize e-CNY, such as higher interest earnings and fewer reserve requirements, which could lead to improved rates or features. 

However, it raises doubts about whether e-CNY will replace or supplement existing bank deposits.

The action plan’s emphasis on security and regulation may reduce risks such as fraud and system failures, while also improving the PBOC’s monetary policy capabilities.

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