Chinese citizens have reportedly carried out approximately 20,000 transactions via e-commerce firm JD.com, during a pilot phase of the nation’s digital yuan.

Specifically, JD.com reportedly disclosed insights of the births of the majority of participants between 1980 and 1990, who utilized the platform to facilitate their transactions in the digital currency beginning December 11th, with at least one transaction’s value surpassing the $1,527 benchmark.

The e-commerce site further revealed that figures, as the city of Suzhou carried out a pilot phase in a real-world situation for digital yuan took place at the “Double Twelve” shopping festival, where 10,000 onsite storefront locations took part in. 

The Suzhou pilot is reportedly among various trials to be organized throughout China, in a bid to run testing for the CBDC. 

The city’s municipal authorities reportedly gave away approximately $3 million in digital yuan in the form of a lottery for the Chinese people. Back in October, the city of Shenzhen rolled out the same kind of pilot initiative as promotional efforts for the digital currency, with a  public giveaway of $1.5 million to 50,000 lottery winners.

“In 2021, China will continue to look for more scenarios to test the digital yuan, but an extensive launch is still unlikely. We have only ourselves to compete with on this matter, and there’s no need to rush it.” Cao Yin, managing director of the Digital Renaissance Foundation in Shanghai, reportedly stated regarding the high possibility of future trials to be carried out, until safe issuance can be guaranteed. 

The People’s Bank of China reportedly initiated the pilot projects for its digital yuan in April this year, across Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Xiongan.