China has strategically advanced its digital currency ambitions with a significant new development.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has officially launched an international operations center for its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan or e-CNY, in Shanghai, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
PBOC Deputy Governor Lu Lei described this initiative as an inevitable evolution in payment systems, designed to create a more efficient, inclusive, and transparent global cross-border payment infrastructure.
This strategic move aims to significantly improve settlement efficiency while establishing foundational infrastructure for broader digital yuan integration worldwide.
China's CBDC expansion coincides with recent regulatory actions against tokenization ventures, following warnings from Chinese securities regulators to brokerage firms regarding their real-world asset (RWA) tokenization operations in Hong Kong.