1. Major state-owned banks start to promote digital yuan wallets with ‘broad invitation’

At present, state-owned banks such as ICBC, China Construction Bank, Communications Bank and Postal Savings Bank have started to promote digital RMB wallets. At these bank outlets, users do not need to carry ID cards or bank cards, but simply fill out information and apply for a whitelist to open a wallet to participate in the digital yuan test. Some observers pointed out that the six state-owned banks, as operating institutions, have developed from the initial “internal invitation system” to the “extensive invitation system” in the test of digital RMB personal wallets, and the state-owned banks are still the operating subjects. With the continuous spread of pilot programs, the analysis believes that the integrated mode of unified supervision by the central bank APP + individual operation of sub-wallets has emerged, and may be the final form.

2. imToken completed its B round of $30 million financing, led by Qiming Venture Capital

Crypto asset wallet imToken has announced a $30 million Series B funding round. This round was led by Qiming Venture Capital, followed by IDG Capital, Hashkey, Breyer Capital, Signum Capital, Longling Capital, SNZ and individual investor Liang Xin-jun.

3. Shenzhen tests digital yuan cross-border payments for Hong Kong residents: anonymous registration can be made with Hong Kong mobile phone numbers

On March 30, 2021, the People’s Government of Luohu District of Shenzhen Municipalization, in cooperation with Bank of China Limited and Bank of China Hong Kong Limited, became the first in China to successfully complete the test work for Hong Kong residents to use digital yuan on the mainland. The test is mainly aimed at two types of Hong Kong residents. One type is Hong Kong residents who travel frequently to and from Shenzhen and can obtain real-name authentication through the Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong Residents (” Return Permit “). One is for occasional Hong Kong residents in Shenzhen, those with only Hong Kong ID cards, who can anonymously open five types of digital yuan wallets using their Hong Kong mobile phone numbers.

After successful verification, Hong Kong residents can open five types of digital RMB wallets anonymously registered with their Hong Kong mobile phone numbers to make small purchases. When purchasing goods, they only need to show the payment code to complete the payment through POS machine.

4. National Development and Reform Commission: Accelerate the formulation and implementation of blockchain and other related standards

On April 1, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 28 departments and units jointly issued the “Accelerating the cultivation of new consumption implementation plan” pointed out that will accelerate the development and promote the implementation of big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other fields related standards, strengthen the regulation of the financial application of new technology. Up to now, China has approved and released more than 520 national standards in fields such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, big data, smart cities, artificial intelligence and blockchain, and the standard system has been continuously improved.