Starbucks and McDonald’s are not to test the CBDC of China after all, it is reported.
American fast food giants, such as Starbucks and McDonald’s, are not to participate in the ongoing tests for the digital yuan in China.
According to a report by the news agency Sina Finance on 14 October, the digital currency of the Chinese Central Bank (CBDC) is still being tested on a „small scale“, especially in retail and catering.
A number of foreign traders, who were believed to be participating in China’s CBDC tests, have so far not even used the digital yuan as a means of payment.
In Xiong’an, one of the major Chinese cities testing the digital yuan, 19 companies are reported to have participated in their CBDC pilot project. Among them were Starbucks, McDonald’s, Subway and the cloud project of UnionPay Unmanned Automated Supermarket.
However, according to Sina Finance, none of these companies Bitcoin Trader software has participated in the digital Yuan tests so far and only accepts digital payments via WeChat, Alipay and QuickPass.
None of the companies has made official statements about tests for the digital yuan. Cointelegraph asked Starbucks and McDonald’s for comments, but received no response by the deadline.
The Chinese authorities launched the first digital yuan tests in April 2020. On 5 October, the Chinese central bank announced that wallets linked to the currency had settled USD 162 million of transactions between April and August 2020. In order to promote the currency, the central bank organised a lottery for $1.5 million. 2 million people are reported to have taken part in the lottery at 3,000 participating traders.