The People’s Bank of China, which is the central bank of China, announced its decision to launch its own cryptocurrency by November.
The central bank had been trying to launch its own digital currency since 2014. The launching of China’s cryptocurrency will cut down the costs of circulating traditional paper money.
According to some reports, the launch of China’s cryptocurrency was accelerated in response to the US based social media giant Facebook’s decision to launch digital coin Libra in a year, a decision which has raised regulatory concerns.
The bank will issue the digital currency to seven institutions immediately after its launch. The institutions include tech giants, Alibaba, Tencent, China UnionPay, and four state-owned banks of China which include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China.
There are reports of an additional eighth institution that might be a recipient of China’s digital currency as soon as it launches, although the identity of the institution is not disclosed.
The recipient institutions are the ones that would have the responsibility to disperse the digital currency to 1.3 billion Chinese citizens.
Mu Changchun, the deputy director of People’s Bank of China’s payment department had stated earlier this month that the bank is ‘almost ready’ to launch its own cryptocurrency.
Reports state that the technology behind the cryptocurrency was ready since last year.
The digital currency will be made available to the rest of the world through correspondent banks. The launch of the currency will make the People’s Bank of China the first central bank to come up with a cryptocurrency.