The top stories from the Chinese cryptocurrency sphere this past week include: China Construction Bank to sell $3bn of debt on blockchain, China to set up a new CBDC test zone in Beijing, China’ RCEP deal may be a testbed for blockchain’s maturity in International trade.……

China Construction Bank to sell $3bn of debt on blockchain

China Construction Bank in partnership with Hong Kong-based fintech company Fusang made a sale worth $3 Bn in debt on a blockchain platform.

Both the China Construction Bank and Fusan seem to have high hopes when it comes to this particular deal. The $3 billion worth of debt will be sold in the form of certificates of deposit to make the investment vessel attractive to a large number of people.

Issued at a minimum of $100 each, the certificates of deposit will be launched through China Construction Bank’s Labuan branch with a tenor of three months.

The source said that the deal also allows investors to trade these China Construction Bank’s digital certificates using bitcoin, but The Labuan Branch of the China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) then has sought to clarify claims, noting on its website that it will only facilitate the “clearing and settlement of the Bond in USDs” and “does not accept cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin for settlement in any of its banking transactions.”

China to set up a new CBDC test zone in Beijing

The People’s Bank of China will conduct the biggest pilot yet in the country’s capital, testing its digital currency electronic payment (DCEP).

News of this large-scale pilot project first broke on Monday, when two large regional governing bodies held a joint conference. The policy is considered to be a major milestone for Beijing, as it initiated a total of 102 liberalization and innovation initiatives in the nation’s capital. Among those initiatives is a city-wide digital yuan pilot project orchestrated by the People’s Bank of China, which is set to mimic a similar effort conducted in the city of Shenzhen last month.

The policy will include, among other things, implementing new technologies in areas such as payment clearance, credit rating, asset transactions, and data management. Blockchain technology, as mentioned during the conference, will play a significant role in facilitating these policies, as most of them are set to utilize the upcoming digital yuan.

For its part, Beijing has been growing in profile as a blockchain and digital currency hub in China. In September, it was named the top blockchain city in the Chinese Blockchain Innovation rankings.

China’ RCEP deal may be a testbed for blockchain’s maturity in International trade

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement by 15 countries from China, Japan, South Korea, 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) to create Asia’s largest free trade zone that will cover 30% of global gross domestic product and trade may present a role for blockchain application in coming days.

Embracing blockchain in the workings of the trade area seems plausible at some point since key member countries already at the top of their games with the technology’s development. Nonetheless, it is safe to say that virtually all the countries involved are aware of or have interacted with the technology’s application for various use cases.