Chinese banks roll out 3,000 ATMs that can convert digital yuan to cash

More than 3,000 automated teller machines (ATM) in Beijing have now been enabled with a feature that can convert China's digital yuan, also known as the e-CNY, into cash, and vice versa. 

According to a Xinhua news agency report on Friday, the Beijing branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has now activated the feature across its 3,000 ATMs in the Chinese capital city. It's yet another sign that China is widening its ongoing e-CNY tests towards a full roll-out.

The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), also one of the big-four state-owned commercial banks with the ICBC, has activated 10 ATMs with the same feature in the Wangfujing district, a major business and shopping area in Beijing.

The ABC first started testing the feature in January in Shenzhen when the city was having its second round of the e-CNY lottery campaign.

The ICBC began testing the same feature on its 10 ATMs in February in Beijing. The Block previously reported on this, showing a video clip that offered a first-hand look on how the feature worked.

The Chinese capital city has recently conducted its second e-CNY lottery giveaway campaign with 40 million digital yuan, worth around $6.3 million.

Overall, a total of six Chinese cities — Shenzhen, Suzhou, Beijing, Chengdu, Changsha and Shanghai — have conducted 11 rounds of e-CNY giveaway lotteries since October with the amounts totaling more than 250 million in digital yuan, worth about $40 million.

The most recent giveaway in Shanghai has notably expanded the reach by increasing the number of the e-CNY lottery winners to 350,000 local residents. In all of the previous tests in other cities, the number of lottery winners each time was capped at 200,000 residents.

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Wolfie joined The Block’s news team in 2020 and switched to the research side in 2021 to focus on crypto mining analysis. Prior to The Block, he had been a journalist at CoinDesk for three years. Wolfie has a background in financial journalism.