China’s central bank plans steady digital yuan expansion through 2030, backed by cross-border payment rails that have moved $1.28 billion in a single transfer.
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The People's Bank of China will “steadily develop” the digital yuan over the next five years, listing the e-CNY as one of its core tasks in a recently published reform blueprint.
The PBOC published what it calls its “15th Five-Year” reform and development plan on August 10, alongside nine separate action plans covering narrower policy areas. Monetary policy, macroprudential supervision, financing for the real economy, and higher-level opening of China’s financial system each get their own sections.
The digital yuan appears under the fifth priority, which deals with financial infrastructure and central bank services. The PBOC says it wants to improve payment systems, help the credit-reporting industry, and strengthen anti-money-laundering rules.
A separate section leans harder on the international angle. The PBOC commits to widening the use of the renminbi in trade and investment, building out a cross-border payment network, and developing offshore RMB markets. It also aims to strengthen Shanghai as an international financial center and reinforce Hong Kong’s standing.
The central bank set the direction for the 15th plan in motion at the beginning of 2026, when it created a framework letting commercial banks pay interest on client e-CNY balances. That move shifted the currency from digital cash toward digital deposit money.
The PBOC started research on the e-CNY project in 2014 under the label DCEP and launched the digital yuan in April 2022, encouraging early adoption through airdrops in pilot cities.
Cross-border action is picking up. China completed its first cross-border digital yuan payment with Singapore, in which ICBC branches settled close to 10 million yuan in shipping fees through the upgraded CBETS platform. That system signed on its first 26 financial institutions in June.
Project mBridge, a multi-central-bank settlement platform whose members include mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, recently had its services extended by Industrial Bank to Macau. The platform was used to move 500 million yuan ($74 million) for an equity deal. Its corporate client count for the service jumped 176% year on year in the first half. Bank of China’s Fujian branch pushed more than HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion) through mBridge in what it called the platform’s largest single transfer to date.
At the 2026 National People’s Congress, deputy Fu Xiguo suggested revising the PBOC’s governing law, which was last updated in 2003. He argued it does not yet define the e-CNY as legal tender, Cryptopolitan reported.
Guangdong province has released a draft of its own five-year plan, which the public can comment on until September 5. The plan calls for larger cross-border e-CNY payment trials and more use cases for the currency.
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