Digital currencies

China’s ambitions to launch a sovereign digital currency have moved a step closer after a large-scale US$3 million trial.  The country’s central bank has been pushing toward a cashless future for several years, and this latest pilot, held in December in Suzhou - a major city near Shanghai - was further proof a full nationwide rollout of the digital yuan is not far off.  Organizers said almost 20,000 purchases were made using the digital yuan, known officially as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) in the trial. Unlike bitcoin, the digital yuan is not a cryptocurrency and is issued by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).  The currency is designed as a digital v

The Chinese government wants to build its own digital currency, but it is unlikely to experience the investment frenzy that launched Bitcoin into the mainstream. The central bank official in charge of the project said the new currency, developed under a project known as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment, would not be open to speculation like other cryptocurrencies, disappointing would-be speculators. Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency research institute, on Saturday said it would be “a digital form of the yuan,” China’s official currency. There would be no speculation on its value and it would not need the backing of a basket of currencies, according t

Facebook’s plans to create its own cryptocurrency, called Libra, have forced China’s central bank to step up its game in developing its own digital currency. Facebook says Libra will let consumers send money around the world easily, but the project has raised regulatory questions at home and in several other countries. A People’s Bank of China official said Libra could challenge the country’s monetary policy and even financial sovereignty, and has forced the Chinese government to speed up research into creating a version of digital currency it can control. “If [Libra] is widely used for payments – cross-border payments in particular – would it be able to function like money and accordingly h

Chinese police have broken up an illegal World Cup gambling ring hosting more than $1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency bets. It’s the the first major sports betting crime involving digital money in the country. Police in southern Guangdong province said in an online statement on Thursday that they had apprehended six major suspects of the syndicate, frozen about $750,000 in their bank accounts, and seized more than $1.5 million worth of cryptocurrencies they own. The gambling platform ran on the so-called dark web, which isn’t indexed by traditional search engines. It only accepted cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, according to Guangdong police. During the eight mont

China’s most high-profile Bitcoin tycoon has delivered a foul-mouthed tirade calling out many big names in the country’s cryptocurrency space as “cheaters.” The 50-minute recording of Li Xiaolai, a controversial English teacher-turned venture capitalist, was leaked to Chinese social media on July 4. In the recording, Li slammed some of the country’s biggest crypto start-ups as scams, suggesting they were cheating retail investors. His targets included Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, and NEO, a leading cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $2.5 billion. Li did not discuss what set his own business apart. The incident throws a spotlight on the shadowy world o