Digital Renminbi, Changed

20 facets of digital renminbi.

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

The visible part of an iceberg is often only 10%.

For a considerable period, the presence of digital renminbi in most people's lives has been quite limited—an occasionally heard concept or a new payment method encountered when receiving red envelopes or enjoying discounts.

However, the vast entity hidden beneath the surface, which constitutes 90%, is no longer confined to C-end consumption. From civil servant salaries and corporate loans to prepaid fund supervision and cross-border settlements, an evolution of infrastructure surrounding currency and payment systems is underway.

On a national scale, by the end of December 2025, the pilot areas for digital renminbi are expected to have processed a total of 3.57 billion transactions, amounting to 19.5 trillion yuan.

Surrounding this 19.5 trillion yuan are several contrasting data sets. According to cumulative data, by the end of 2025, the average single transaction amount for digital renminbi over the years is approximately 5,462 yuan; if only looking at the incremental data for 2025, the average single transaction amount is about 10,000 yuan. This certainly does not mean that every digital renminbi transaction by ordinary people reaches the ten-thousand-yuan level, but rather reflects the increasing trend of large transactions such as loans, corporate transfers, tax payments, and cross-border settlements.

This growth is not a uniform picture across regions. By the end of 2025, the cumulative digital renminbi transactions in Jiangsu reached 15 trillion yuan, accounting for about 77% of the national total. Within Jiangsu, Suzhou stands out as the most prominent city-level hub.

There are also differences among scenarios. The consumption proportion in Jiangsu is only about 1.18%. This means that, at least from the statistical structure disclosed by Jiangsu, retail consumption, while an important entry point for the public to engage with digital renminbi, is not the main source of local transaction volume. By combining more data, we can find that beyond consumption, B-end and G-end transactions are becoming significant pillars of digital renminbi transaction volume.

On August 10, 2026, the "14th Five-Year Plan for Reform and Development" issued by the People's Bank of China clearly stated the goal of "steadily developing digital renminbi." From the initiation of research and development in 2014 to the pilot testing starting in 2019, this exploration spanning over a decade has now reached what stage?

This article will break down the true face of digital renminbi through 20 lesser-known data points and development facets. The panoramic view they piece together is far more complex and radical than most people imagine.

First Dimension | Scale and Growth Rate: The Acceleration of Digital Renminbi

1. 10.1 trillion yuan in new digital renminbi transactions in 2025, exceeding the cumulative total of previous years in one year

Data disclosed by the People's Daily shows that by the end of 2025, the pilot areas for digital renminbi had cumulatively processed 3.57 billion transactions, amounting to 19.5 trillion yuan, with the digital renminbi app having opened 230 million personal wallets and 19.08 million corporate wallets.

The pilot has formed a significant scale of transactions and accounts. To understand this data, it is important to note the "cumulative" perspective—it aggregates transactions from different years, regions, and scenarios since the pilot began, covering retail consumption as well as corporate transfers, loan disbursements, tax payments, housing fund contributions, and cross-border settlements. Therefore, the 19.5 trillion yuan mainly reflects the total volume of fund circulation rather than purely retail scale.

The real speed change can be seen in the incremental data from adjacent years. By the end of 2024, the cumulative transaction amount for digital renminbi was 9.4 trillion yuan, with 2.56 billion transactions processed; by the end of 2025, these figures rose to 19.5 trillion yuan and 3.57 billion transactions, respectively.

By subtracting the cumulative values from adjacent years, the new transaction amount in 2025 is approximately 10.1 trillion yuan, with about 1.01 billion new transactions. The new amount in 2025 alone exceeds the cumulative amount of the previous several years by about 700 billion yuan.

Thus, the changes in digital renminbi in 2025 are not only about the total amount continuing to increase but also about the annual transaction scale expanding significantly faster.

2. In the national payment system, the 10 trillion yuan increment accounts for 0.18% of non-cash payments nationwide

According to the "2025 Overall Situation of Payment System Operations" released by the People's Bank of China Clearing Center, in 2025, banks nationwide handled non-cash payment business amounting to 5740.24 trillion yuan, the national payment system processed business worth 12807.07 trillion yuan, and non-bank payment institutions processed network payment business amounting to 337.81 trillion yuan.

In terms of amount, the new transaction amount for digital renminbi in 2025 is approximately 0.18%, 0.08%, and 3.0% of the aforementioned scales, respectively. Due to the different business scopes covered by various statistical sets, the same economic activity may form multiple segments of fund flow in different systems, making these ratios more suitable for observing order of magnitude rather than strictly defining market share.

Overall, the transaction scale of digital renminbi in 2025 has significantly accelerated, with new transaction amounts reaching 10.1 trillion yuan; meanwhile, within China's vast payment system, its application scale still has room for further expansion.

3. New transactions in 2025 average about 10,000 yuan, reflecting characteristics of large transactions

Dividing 19.5 trillion yuan by 3.57 billion transactions gives an average single transaction amount of approximately 5,462 yuan by the end of 2025. By the end of 2024, this figure was about 3,672 yuan.

If only calculating the incremental data for 2025, 10.1 trillion yuan divided by 1.01 billion transactions results in an average of about 10,000 yuan per transaction, significantly higher than the previous cumulative level.

This does not mean that residents' daily renminbi consumption has seen a significant leap. A more reasonable explanation is that the influence of large transactions such as loans, corporate transfers, tax payments, housing fund contributions, and cross-border settlements is increasing within the transaction structure. Since publicly available national data has not yet broken down consumption, loans, transfers, government affairs, and cross-border transactions item by item, the specific contributions of various businesses still await more detailed data.

4. 230 million personal digital renminbi wallets nationwide, with Jiangsu's sample showing a monthly active ratio of 15%

By the end of 2025, the digital renminbi app had cumulatively opened 230 million personal wallets. Based on the total population of 1.40489 billion provided by the National Bureau of Statistics at the end of 2025, the number of personal wallets is approximately 16.4% of the population. There are 19.08 million corporate wallets, equivalent to 8.3% of the number of personal wallets.

However, the number of wallets does not equal the number of independent users. The same user can open multiple wallets with different operating institutions, and enterprises can also open multiple corporate wallets. Therefore, the cumulative number of wallets is more suitable for measuring account coverage and service reach, and cannot be directly converted into user penetration rates.

Activity levels can be referenced from local samples. According to data from Xinhua News, by the end of June 2026, Jiangsu had approximately 81.32 million digital renminbi wallets in stock, with 12.31 million monthly active wallets. Based on wallet counts, on average, about 15 out of every 100 stock wallets were active in that month.

However, this is only suitable for observing local usage conditions, and the representativeness should not be extended to the national level.

5. What scale does digital renminbi occupy in the corresponding currency hierarchy?

The statistical criteria for digital renminbi have undergone adjustments. In the cash-type 1.0 phase, the circulating digital renminbi stock was included in the M0 statistics at the end of 2022, analyzed and managed together with physical renminbi.

The People's Bank of China disclosed at that time that the circulating digital renminbi stock was 13.61 billion yuan; after including this stock, the M0 balance for that year was 10.47 trillion yuan. Based on this calculation, the digital renminbi stock accounted for about 0.13% of that year's M0 balance. Subsequent public statistics have not continued to separately list the circulating digital renminbi stock.

Starting from January 1, 2026, digital renminbi has upgraded from digital cash to digital deposit currency. The balances of digital renminbi wallets opened by banking institutions are included in the framework of the deposit reserve system, uniformly counted into the base for deposit reserve contributions; the digital renminbi in customers' commercial bank wallets is clearly defined as liabilities of commercial banks based on accounts and counted into the corresponding currency levels according to liquidity.

Second Dimension | Regional Profile: One Province Dominates 70%

National data shows the overall growth rate, while local data further presents the regional sources of transactions. Jiangsu, especially Suzhou, contributes a very high proportion of transaction volume; meanwhile, the pilot scope still has clear boundaries, with different initiation times, industrial structures, and key scenarios across regions.

6. Pilot covers 17 provinces and municipalities, 26 regions, but still has clear boundaries

In terms of pilot areas, according to Mobile Payment Network, since the end of 2019, the central bank has first conducted digital renminbi pilot tests in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong'an, Chengdu, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics scenarios. Then, in November 2020, April 2022, and December 2022, three expansions were carried out, forming the current 26 regions across 17 provinces and municipalities, covering different types of areas such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, as well as central, western, northeastern, and northwestern regions.

Specific areas include Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei Province, Dalian, Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua), Fujian (Fuzhou, Xiamen), Shandong (Jinan, Qingdao), Changsha, Guangdong Province, Guangxi (Nanning, Fangchenggang), Hainan Province, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan (Kunming, Xishuangbanna), Xi'an, etc.

This means that the current national cumulative data is a summary of the business from the aforementioned pilot areas and does not equate to the digital renminbi being fully rolled out in all regions.

7. Jiangsu alone accounts for about 77% of the national cumulative digital renminbi transaction volume

By the end of 2025, Jiangsu's cumulative digital renminbi transactions reached 15 trillion yuan, estimated to account for about 77% of the national total of 19.5 trillion yuan.

Entering 2026, Jiangsu's leading position continues. According to Xinhua News, in the first half of 2026, Jiangsu's new digital renminbi transactions reached 7 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 215%, accounting for over 80% of the national total during the same period.

Jiangsu's high proportion indicates that the current national transaction growth still largely comes from a few pioneering regions, and the total national volume should not be understood as evenly distributed across all pilot areas.

8. Suzhou alone accounts for 13 trillion yuan: the absolute core of Jiangsu's digital renminbi transactions

Within Jiangsu, Suzhou is the most prominent sample. According to data released by Suzhou News in March 2026, Suzhou's cumulative digital renminbi transaction amount exceeded 13 trillion yuan, with the "Suqi Rong" platform's digital renminbi loan section having issued over 1 trillion yuan in digital renminbi loans.

Suzhou has integrated digital renminbi into loans, supply chain finance, taxation, housing funds, public resource transactions, and prepaid card supervision. The transaction amounts in enterprises and government systems are typically higher than retail consumption, providing strong support for the local cumulative transaction scale.

9. The gradient and differentiation of digital renminbi pilot projects

Outside of Jiangsu, Zhejiang is one of the larger regional samples in publicly available data. As of March 2026, Zhejiang has accumulated transactions reaching 2 trillion yuan, ranking second in the country. According to the People's Bank of China, Zhejiang has deeply integrated digital renminbi into economic and livelihood scenarios. By 2025, Zhejiang will explore cross-border payment applications of digital renminbi relying on platforms such as the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone and Yiwu's international trade reforms, with the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge transactions accounting for 30% of the national total. The scale of government service scenarios is continuously expanding, with the public using digital renminbi to pay over 2.3 billion yuan on the "Zheli Ban" platform.

Looking further, different regions have formed a gradient from hundreds of billions to tens of billions. By the end of December 2025, Fujian had accumulated transactions of 728.023 billion yuan, while Beijing had nearly 300 billion yuan by the end of August 2025; according to securities firms, Guangdong reported a total of 157.6 billion yuan by the end of June 2025 based on "transfers and consumption"; Hunan had accumulated transactions of 63.528 billion yuan by the end of April 2026. Jinan in Shandong had accumulated transactions of 49.36 billion yuan by the end of 2025, while Qingdao had 23.3 billion yuan; Chongqing had 37.4 billion yuan by the end of August 2025.

Due to inconsistencies in statistical time points and regional criteria, these data cannot form an accurate ranking for the same period. However, the magnitude of differences already indicates that the transaction scale of digital renminbi is closely related to the pilot time, local policy investments, industrial structure, and whether it is connected to large transactions such as loans and corporate settlements.

Third Dimension | Scenario Penetration: From Consumption Payments to Wage Distribution, Prepaid Supervision, and Institutional Cash Flow

The application scenarios of digital renminbi are forming two levels: consumption vouchers, red envelopes, and more e-commerce platforms support embedding digital renminbi into daily consumption chains; smart contracts, prepaid fund supervision, wage and subsidy distribution, loans, and government payment scenarios further enter the realm of fund management and institutional settlement. This largely explains why the growth in transaction scale does not completely synchronize with public daily perceptions.

10. In 2025, Jiangsu Used 350 Million Yuan in Consumption Vouchers and Red Envelopes to Stimulate 3.4 Billion Yuan in Consumption

Consumption vouchers, red envelopes, and subsidies remain the most common retail entry points for digital renminbi.

The People's Bank of China Jiangsu Branch disclosed a complete set of consumption promotion data: In 2025, the province conducted over 11,000 digital renminbi consumption promotion activities, distributing approximately 350 million yuan in digital renminbi consumption vouchers, red envelopes, and related subsidies, directly driving resident consumption by more than 3.4 billion yuan. During the 2026 Spring Festival, over 1,100 activities were conducted, distributing about 36 million yuan, covering more than 200,000 merchants and attracting over 2 million participants, driving consumption close to 500 million yuan.

Based on the disclosed amounts, the consumption driven by Jiangsu's related activities in 2025 was approximately 9.7 times the amount distributed.

The significance of such activities lies not only in stimulating consumption but also in completing a full loop of user wallet opening, merchant access acceptance, and policy fund verification, cultivating usage habits and acceptance networks.

11. From Supermarket Retail, Catering, and Accommodation to E-commerce Platforms like JD, Meituan, and Taobao, Digital Renminbi is Embedded in Daily Consumption Chains

According to the People's Bank of China Jiangsu Branch, in terms of consumption activities, it covers multiple fields including supermarket retail, transportation, cultural tourism, catering, accommodation, and sports events. For example, Changzhou launched a digital renminbi discount activity for green travel; Wuxi and Nantong created digital renminbi consumption aggregation areas relying on business districts and scenic spots; many places launched consumption activities in conjunction with the "Su Super" events; and in non-pilot city Huai'an, the business department actively cooperated with the "Happy Shopping Spring" activity, supporting the distribution of 3 million yuan in red envelopes for prize invoices through digital renminbi.

Suzhou High-tech Zone previously issued digital renminbi red envelope subsidies for home purchases and car purchases, with home buyers receiving 20,000 yuan and car buyers receiving thousands of yuan, effectively stimulating large-scale consumption.

On the other hand, digital renminbi has been embedded in the payment channels of multiple mainstream internet platforms, including Meituan, JD, Taobao, Didi, Ele.me, and Amap. Users do not need to switch to the digital renminbi app; they can directly select digital renminbi for payment on the merchant settlement page.

According to publicly available data from China Finance Online, as of November 2025, nearly 20 million users had used digital renminbi on JD, with nearly 30 million wallets opened and a cumulative transaction amount exceeding 10 billion yuan.

On the Meituan side, the Hunan Branch of China Construction Bank collaborated with Meituan to build an online consumption digital currency ecosystem, with annual transactions of 58.61 million transactions and an amount of 1.558 billion yuan.

The significance of platform access is not to create another entry competing with existing internet platforms but to make digital renminbi a selectable financial tool within the consumption processes that users are already familiar with.

12. Digital Renminbi Consumption Amount in Jiangsu Accounts for Approximately 1.18% of Cumulative Transaction Amount

In Jiangsu's cumulative transaction of 15 trillion yuan, the disclosed consumption amount is 176.9 billion yuan, accounting for only 1.18%. This means that, at least from Jiangsu's statistical structure, while merchant retail consumption is an important scenario for the public to contact digital renminbi, it is not the main source of transaction scale.

Nationally and in most regions, the transaction amounts for consumption, transfers, and institutional businesses have not yet been further broken down, but the average transaction amount can serve as an auxiliary indicator for observing transaction structure. As mentioned earlier, the average single transaction amount for new digital renminbi transactions in 2025 was about 10,000 yuan; by the end of 2025, the average single transaction amount in Fujian was about 2,947 yuan; and by the end of August 2025, the average single transaction amount in Beijing was about 556 yuan. The differences between regions may relate to the composition of scenarios such as retail consumption, government payments, corporate settlements, and loans, but this cannot be used to infer the consumption proportions in various places.

From the banking side, Bank of China achieved 86.6 million digital renminbi consumption transactions in 2025, with a consumption amount of 27.762 billion yuan, and an average single transaction consumption scale of about 321 yuan.

The above data comes from regional cumulative transactions and the consumption business of a single bank, and the statistical scope and business criteria are not the same, so they cannot be directly compared, nor can they be used to rank the usage enthusiasm of residents in various places. However, they collectively suggest that to explain the growth in transaction scale, one cannot only observe daily scanning consumption but also needs to examine the role of large institutional businesses within it.

13. Digital Renminbi Smart Contracts Enter Real Business, with a Cumulative Signing of 486,400 Contracts

Smart contracts are the most imaginative technical feature of digital renminbi, and one of the currently implemented scenarios is prepaid fund supervision, which can be simply understood as turning the agreed fund usage conditions into system-executable rules: if conditions are met, the money is automatically transferred; if conditions are not met, the funds remain restricted or are returned as agreed.

The logic is simple: the money you charge at a gym or training institution is locked in a dedicated wallet through a digital renminbi smart contract, transferring once for each consumption, and if the merchant runs away, your money is still safe.

According to Securities Times, as of the end of January 2026, digital renminbi smart contracts have been piloted in areas such as prepaid fund management, supply chain finance, corporate group financial management, and subsidy distribution, with a cumulative signing of 486,400 contracts and a cumulative transaction amount of 316 million yuan.

• Suzhou "Suzhihe" Platform: Relying on smart contracts to achieve dedicated account custody, on-demand transfers, and one-click instant refunds, covering scenarios such as education and training, driving training, elderly care, dental care, beauty, and fitness. As of July 13, 2026, the cumulative transaction amount exceeded 600 million yuan.
• Qingdao "Zhijin Weishi": According to Qingdao News Network, Qingdao "Zhijin Weishi" launched various products such as annual cards, quarterly cards, and monthly cards. By the end of 2025, nearly 2,000 merchants in Qingdao accepted digital renminbi prepaid fund management, issuing nearly 5,000 digital renminbi prepaid consumption products covering shopping supermarkets, dining, beauty, education and training, fitness, and daily travel, with the number of merchants increasing sevenfold year-on-year.
• Fuzhou Education and Training Pilot: According to Fuzhou Consumption Network, 119 off-campus training institutions have been established, creating a full-chain supervision model of "course purchase - payment - course cancellation - refund," with a coverage rate of 81% for subject training institutions.

These three cases may seem like local platform inventories, but they address the same institutional issue: in a prepaid model, the payment time often precedes the merchant's performance time. What digital renminbi smart contracts do is match the rhythm of fund transfers with the service progress.

14. From Full Salary for Civil Servants in Changshu to Smart Contract Salary Payments in Chengdu: Two Paths for Digital Currency Salaries

There are two representative practices for salary payments. According to Securities Times, from May 2023, Changshu City in Jiangsu Province implemented full salary payments in digital renminbi for civil servants (including public personnel), staff of public institutions, and personnel from state-owned enterprises at all levels. This is one of the earliest cases in the country to achieve full salary payment for civil servants in digital currency. Additionally, according to Shanghai Securities News, Suzhou's Xiangcheng District, Taicang City, and Suzhou Industrial Park have already implemented digital renminbi salary payments for government agencies, public institutions, and state-owned enterprise employees. Subsequently, salary payment pilots have been batch promoted in many places.

According to Sichuan News Broadcast, in February 2026, the first batch of digital renminbi smart contract salary payments was successfully implemented at a construction site in Chengdu High-tech Zone, distributing over 1 million yuan in wages to 104 workers, achieving "instant salary payment, unable to be intercepted, and fully traceable."

The former uses digital renminbi as a salary payment tool, while the latter further utilizes smart contracts to control payment conditions and fund usage.

15. Suzhou's Digital Renminbi Loans Exceed 1 Trillion Yuan, Fujian Uses Digital Renminbi to Pay 80 Billion Yuan in Taxes: The Main Force of Digital Currency Increment Lies in B-end and G-end

Loans are one of the important scenarios for forming large transactions. In 2025, Suzhou issued 74,000 digital renminbi loans, amounting to 552 billion yuan, including 65 billion yuan for technology enterprises. Based on publicly available data, the average loan amount was about 7.46 million yuan. By March 2026, according to Xinhua News, the cumulative digital renminbi loans in the city had exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

The government and public service sectors have also formed a large scale. By April 2026, the cumulative transaction amount of digital renminbi in the Suzhou housing fund sector reached 165.1 billion yuan, covering deposits, withdrawals, and loan repayments; Bank of China completed tax payments of 35.699 billion yuan through digital renminbi in 2025, which is based on the bank's own business criteria; by the end of 2025, Fujian Province had achieved full-scene tax payments in digital renminbi, with a cumulative tax payment amount of nearly 80 billion yuan, promoting 466 municipal budget units in Fuzhou to use digital currency for issuing subsidies, financial rewards, and daily expenditures.

Digital renminbi has also begun to enter the disbursement of local government special bond funds. The People's Bank of China Changshou Branch, in conjunction with the Finance Bureau of Dianjiang County, promoted the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Dianjiang Branch and Agricultural Bank of China Dianjiang Branch to complete the disbursement of 210 million yuan in local government special bond funds based on the integrated financial platform.

These scenarios collectively explain a phenomenon: the rapid growth of digital renminbi transaction amounts, but ordinary consumers do not have a strong perception------because the bulk is not in the C-end, but in the B-end and G-end.

Fourth Dimension | Two International Channels for Digital Renminbi

16. mBridge: 477.8 Billion Yuan, Digital Renminbi Accounts for About 96%

The Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge (mBridge) is jointly constructed by the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the UAE, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. According to the People's Daily, from its trial operation starting in June 2024 until the end of 2025, mBridge has processed a total of 4,868 cross-border payment transactions, with a cumulative transaction amount equivalent to approximately 477.8 billion RMB, of which the digital RMB accounts for about 96% of the transaction volume across various currencies.

Based on this data, the average transaction amount is approximately 98 million RMB, indicating that mBridge currently focuses on large settlements for enterprises and financial institutions.

By June 2026, the Bank of China disclosed that the cumulative transaction amount of mBridge exceeded 600 billion RMB. This year, the Bank of China also completed two cross-border transactions exceeding 10 billion RMB: one involving over 10 billion HKD remittance by its Fujian branch, and another involving 11.3 billion RMB outbound remittance by its Shenzhen branch.

The core change of mBridge is to shorten the funding chain between participating banks under the constraints of joint governance and compliance requirements.

17. CBETS: Connecting 26 Domestic and Foreign Financial Institutions, Providing Another Bilateral Channel for Digital RMB

"CBETS" (Digital Currency Electronic Payment System) is a cross-border infrastructure for digital RMB developed under the guidance of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China. Unlike the multilateral bridge structure of mBridge, CBETS operates on a bilateral channel logic—managed by the Digital RMB International Operation Center, allowing direct participants to complete cross-border payment settlements on a peer-to-peer basis.

On June 16, 2026, the Digital RMB International Operation Center signed service agreements with 26 domestic and foreign financial institutions as direct participants in CBETS in Shanghai.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the first batch of 26 participants includes a diverse range of entities: foreign banks such as Standard Chartered China, as well as several Chinese banks with overseas branches in Thailand, Singapore, Laos, and Qatar; it also includes major state-owned banks like ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, and BOCOM, as well as joint-stock commercial banks such as Industrial Bank, CITIC Bank, and SPD Bank.

After the first batch of institutions were connected, CBETS began to enter real trade scenarios. On August 15, 2026, China Construction Bank processed a 200 million RMB cross-border payment for Sinochem International through this platform, used for purchasing bulk raw materials in the ASEAN region. China Construction Bank referred to this as the first cross-border payment for goods trade using digital RMB in the country.

This transaction not only completed the payment but also connected trade information transmission. China Construction Bank collaborated with Shanghai Cross-border Trade Digital Financial Service Co., Ltd. to link trade background, financial information, and payment processes, transmitting on-chain trade information and completing fund transfers through CBETS.

If mBridge focuses on shortening the settlement chain between participating banks within a multilateral framework, then CBETS emphasizes flexible access and the connection of digital RMB with specific trade scenarios.

Fifth Dimension: From "Digital Cash" to "Digital Deposits": What Rules Has 2.0 Rewritten?

The above aspects mainly present the scale and structure of transactions, and now we turn to the institutional changes of digital RMB itself. The new generation framework implemented in 2026 not only adds some interest to wallet balances but also readjusts the relationship between digital RMB and the asset-liability system of commercial banks.

18. The Changes of Digital RMB 2.0 Go Beyond Interest Calculation: Cash-type 1.0 Transitions to Deposit Currency-type 2.0

Starting from January 1, 2026, the new generation measurement framework, management system, operational mechanism, and ecological system for digital RMB officially came into effect. The most intuitive change is that banks began to pay interest on the balances of real-name wallets of types one, two, and three, while type four wallets do not earn interest. Interest is calculated based on the current deposit rate published by the operating institution on the interest settlement date, which occurs on March 20, June 20, September 20, and December 20 each year.

For ordinary users, this means that keeping money in a real-name digital RMB wallet no longer necessarily incurs a loss of interest on current deposits. While it may not be sufficient to change users' payment habits, it eliminates a significant barrier to holding digital RMB for a long time.

Deeper adjustments occur on the banks' balance sheets. Lu Lei, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, wrote in the Financial Times that under the institutional arrangement, the digital RMB in customers' wallets at commercial banks is considered a liability of the commercial banks based on accounts, marking the transition of digital RMB from cash-type 1.0 to deposit currency-type 2.0.

Thus, digital RMB transitions from cash-type 1.0 to deposit currency-type 2.0, but this does not mean that all balances uniformly shift from M0 to M1 or M2. The public institutional statement is that wallet balances are classified into corresponding currency tiers based on liquidity.

19. Commercial Banks and Other Operating Institutions Expand to 30 in Two Phases Annually

Digital RMB adopts a "central bank - operating institution" dual-layer operational structure. In this system, the People's Bank of China is responsible for the top-level design of digital RMB. Commercial banks, as operating institutions, form the second layer, with core functions including scenario construction, wallet opening, exchange services, circulation services, and legal obligations such as anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing.

In April 2026, the People's Bank of China added 12 new digital RMB operating institutions; on August 17, another 8 were added, bringing the total to 30, including 6 state-owned banks, 12 national joint-stock banks, 10 city commercial banks, and 2 internet banks.

The specific list includes: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, WeBank (Ant Group), Tencent's WeChat Pay, CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank, Huaxia Bank, Minsheng Bank, Guangfa Bank, SPD Bank, Zhejiang Commercial Bank, Ningbo Bank, Jiangsu Bank, Beijing Bank, Nanjing Bank, Suzhou Bank, and the 8 newly added institutions in August: Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, Bohai Bank, Shanghai Bank, Hangzhou Bank, Huishang Bank, Changsha Bank, and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank.

The expansion of operating institutions signifies more than just additional wallet entry points in the digital RMB app; it introduces a more diverse range of institutional types and scenario resources. State-owned banks bring branch networks and customer bases, joint-stock banks connect enterprises and supply chain ecosystems, city commercial banks focus on local governance and regional economies, while internet banks bridge the ecosystems of Ant Group and Tencent—thereby significantly broadening the reach of digital RMB.

20. Dual Offline Payment: Payments Without Internet or Power

Another key capability of digital RMB is dual offline payment. Payments can still be completed without a network or even when the phone is out of power.

In 2026, the digital RMB app launched an offline code function. Users can open the app and swipe up to access the payment code page. When the network is normal, an online code is generated; if the network is interrupted, the system automatically switches to an offline code without manual operation. According to the Financial Times, currently, ICBC, ABC, BOC, Postal Savings Bank, and Industrial Bank support this function.

In terms of hardware wallets, forms include cards, wristbands, SIM cards, etc., which do not require a smartphone or internet connection; payment can be made with a light touch. Shenzhen has provided a relatively complete landing sample, issuing a "touchable, visible, and scannable" digital RMB hardware wallet, enabling multi-channel recharges such as Hong Kong Octopus and foreign cards, covering nearly 40,000 merchants in Shenzhen.

Conclusion

Putting these 20 aspects together, we can see that digital RMB is simultaneously undergoing three changes: in terms of currency attributes, it transitions from cash-type 1.0 to deposit currency-type 2.0; in application structure, it extends from red envelopes and payment codes to wages, subsidies, prepayments, loans, taxes, and supply chains; in terms of funding scope, it continues to move from local pilot projects into cross-border settlement infrastructure.

These changes combined point to one conclusion: the legal tender attributes and payment attributes of digital RMB have not changed; what has changed is its capability boundaries—further extending towards smart contracts, fund management, institutional settlements, and cross-border connectivity infrastructure functions.