Forbes reports, citing two sources familiar with the matter
This has been rumoured for a while now but the latest report suggests that China is looking to issue its own cryptocurrency just in time for Singles' Day (11 November) - which is the country's biggest shopping day for online sales.
China is said to have accelerated their push for digital money after Facebook announced plans back in June to launch Libra within a year. The report adds that:
"The PBOC plans to distribute its cryptocurrency through at least seven institutions in the initial stage, including Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, China's largest payments card issuer China UnionPay, and four Chinese state-owned banks."
I reckon this could either be a massive game-changer in the industry or a massive flop. But given that this is China, I'm inclined to lean towards the former.
As such, watch this space as other central banks around the world may look to ride on the trend soon enough; should they have the capacity and infrastructure to do so.
