Social media giant Wechat has announced that it will support CBDC in China, and is expected to boost the

Chinese social media giant Wechat said it will support the digital yuan, which in the move is expected to increase the number of Chinese residents using central bank digital currency (CBDC). Wechat's support for the digital yuan will potentially provide the digital currency for its 800 million active social media users. New app provides access to CBDC Wechat, one of China's largest messaging and payment apps, is said to be set to support the digital yuan, China's CBDC.

The addition of CBDC to the social platform is expected to boost the adoption rate of the digital yuan. The messaging giant's decision to support CBDC comes shortly after the central bank launched the e-cny app, which gives users in some Chinese regions and cities access to the digital yuan. However, as the report in Coinrivet notes, Wechat's announcement, as well as the inclusion of Alibaba's Alipay into the digital currency ecosystem, suggest that the e-cny app alone may not achieve the central bank's goal of getting more Chinese people to use CBDCs.

The central bank's reasons for partnering with Wechat and Alipay To support this assertion, the report quotes Linghao Bao, an analyst at consulting firm Trivium China who says he sees meaning in the central bank's decision to choose the two internet giants. He said: "Chinese consumers are so locked into Wechat Pay and Alipay, it is not realistic to convince them to switch to a new mobile payment app. So it makes sense for the central bank to cooperate with Wechat Pay and Alipay rather than doing it alone."

“Wechat's support for the digital yuan adds to the social media app's growing list of use cases that already include Wechat Pay.