China’s ‘red envelope’ lottery giveaway of digital yuan to 50,000 residents of Shenzhen resulted in 62,788 transactions with a total value of 8.764m yuan (US$1.32m) during the week-long central bank digital currency (CBDC) test in the city.

In all, 47,573 of those chosen from nearly two million applicants to receive the 200 e-yuan (US$29.65) ‘gift’ in their digital wallet used the currency to make purchases at 3,000 participating retailers in Shenzhen’s Luohu district, according to local government figures.

Participants were also able to add new funds to their digital wallets during the trial. Users added a total of 901,000 yuan (US$134,945) during the trial period, the local government source reports.

Next: Visit the NFCW Expo to find new suppliers and solutions