On a certain date, the People's Bank of China Shenzhen Branch and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Shenzhen Branch held the third quarter press conference of the year. At the conference, as one of the first pilot areas for digital RMB, Shenzhen announced the latest data and developments regarding digital RMB in the region.

The meeting revealed that by the end of the month, the number of digital RMB wallets in Shenzhen had increased by over 100,000 compared to the beginning of the year, and the cumulative circulation business amount had grown by over % compared to the same period last year. Among them, in terms of the application of digital RMB smart contracts, Shenzhen is accelerating the expansion of the scale of digital RMB smart contract applications, continuously "escorting" the healthy development of prepaid business areas. It is reported that currently, Shenzhen has signed contracts with over 1,000 institutions in the prepaid business area, serving 10 million customers and managing funds exceeding 10 billion yuan.

In terms of the digital RMB acceptance environment, Shenzhen is also continuously exploring ways to bridge the "last mile" of offline acceptance to increase the frequency of digital RMB usage. In this month, the General Office of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government officially issued the "Work Plan for Further Optimizing Payment Services and Building a Demonstration Zone of Full-Coverage Payment Services in Shenzhen," which proposes to phase in the enhancement of digital RMB acceptance coverage among key merchants and to improve the application models of digital RMB hard wallets in scenarios such as public transportation, subways, and taxis.

On the basis of being the first in the nation to implement the "touch-and-pay" hard wallet collection function for digital RMB, in this month, the Shenzhen Branch of the People's Bank of China, in collaboration with the Digital Currency Research Institute, issued the "Notice on Further Enhancing the Application of Digital RMB Collection Services in Shenzhen," and promoted pilot applications among over a thousand taxi drivers from two taxi companies in Shenzhen. This initiative has opened up an innovative and practical pathway for further efficiently integrating digital RMB acceptance channels for small and micro merchants, and for constructing a more convenient and secure digital RMB acceptance environment.

Regarding the question of where Shenzhen's digital RMB efforts will focus next, although no further details were revealed at the meeting, industry analysts suggest that the city will continue to explore the potential of digital RMB smart contracts in fostering service innovation and supporting the high-quality development of the digital economy, driving innovation in digital RMB application scenarios.

For the development path of digital RMB, an employee from ICBC's digital currency office told reporters that the key is to make digital RMB more versatile and enhance its popularity.