China doles out $6.2 million to residents as new digital Yuan trial set to begin in Beijing

The Chinese government is not taking any break in its quest to launch its digital Yuan. In its latest move, the country has earmarked 40 million digital Yuan ($6.2 million) for Beijing residents as part of its new digital currency trial.

Beijing residents have until midnight of June 7 to apply to participate in the lottery. The region’s Local Financial Supervision and Administration officially announced Tuesday that the government would begin a pilot test in June.

That being said, the program features “red envelopes,” which is a traditional way of gifting money. Each red envelope provides a free online wallet containing 200 digital Yuan ($31) and will be distributed to 200,000 lottery winners. The winners will be able to spend their gift money at nearly 2,000 designated merchant locations across the city. However, they first need to download an application.

As per the announcement, entries to participate in the lottery will close on June 7, while winners cannot spend their prize money until June 20. Furthermore, users can opt to top up their wallets if they wish to spend more than the said 200 digital Yuan.

This is not the first time that the Chinese government will be testing its digital currency. Multiple giveaways and pilot tests have been carried out in other cities, including Shenzhen.

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