Digital Yuan Stocks Surge as China Approves Interest-Bearing Wallets for 2026

The investment surge occurred on Monday, December 30, 2025, after the PBOC announced its new “Action Plan” for the digital yuan on December 29. The plan fundamentally changes how China’s e-CNY operates by transforming it from digital cash into interest-bearing deposit money.

Major Stock Gains Across Payment Companies

Nearly one-third of the total investment—approximately $52 million—flowed into Lakala Payment Co., Ltd., a third-party payment processor that provides merchant acceptance solutions and hardware wallets for the digital yuan. The company’s share price rose over 12% on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and continued climbing on December 30.

Six other companies working on PBOC digital yuan solutions also posted double-digit gains of more than 10%. These included Hengbao, Cuiwei, ST Rendong, Wuhan Tianyu, and iSoftStone. Many of these firms specialize in hardware wallets, offline payment solutions, and wearable digital yuan devices.

Source: @PDChinaBusiness

According to Chinese outlet Securities Times, an unnamed financial expert described the central bank’s move as a “win-win situation for all parties.” The expert explained that enterprises and individuals will receive interest income while enjoying more financial products and services, and commercial banks will receive incentives for conducting digital yuan business.

How the New Framework Changes Digital Yuan

The PBOC’s action plan, effective January 1, 2026, allows commercial banks to independently manage the assets and liabilities of digital yuan wallet balances. This marks a significant shift in the central bank’s strategy for its digital currency.

Lu Lei, Deputy Governor of the PBOC, outlined the modern digital yuan’s attributes in a state newspaper article. The currency will now function as “a measure of monetary value, store of value, and cross-border payment” with technical support and supervision provided directly by the central bank.

Under the new framework, banks can pay interest on verified digital yuan wallets following existing self-regulatory agreements on deposit pricing. Digital yuan balances will also receive the same protection as traditional deposits under China’s deposit insurance system.

The action plan covers the 2026-2030 period and represents the culmination of a decade of development and testing that began when China proposed a two-tier operating system for the digital yuan in 2016.

Current Digital Yuan Adoption Statistics

As of November 2025, China’s digital yuan has processed 3.48 billion transactions with a cumulative value of 16.7 trillion yuan ($2.38 trillion). The system currently supports 230 million personal wallets and 18.84 million corporate wallets through its dedicated application.

The multilateral central bank digital currency bridge, known as mBridge, processed 4,047 cross-border transactions worth 387.2 billion yuan ($54.2 billion). Digital yuan transactions accounted for approximately 95.3% of total mBridge activity, demonstrating the currency’s dominance in cross-border CBDC payments.

Despite these impressive numbers, the digital yuan has struggled to gain widespread traction due to stiff competition from entrenched mobile payment platforms like WeChat Pay and Alipay, which dominate China’s cashless transaction landscape. The introduction of interest-bearing wallets aims to make the digital yuan more competitive with traditional banking products.

Hardware Wallets Target Unbanked Population

Many of the companies receiving investor attention specialize in hardware and offline wallet solutions. These devices include wearable wallets and plastic credit card-type solutions that the PBOC views as crucial for adoption.

While most of China’s young and urban population use smartphones and have bank accounts, millions of Chinese citizens remain unbanked, with millions more not connected to the internet. The hardware wallets already deployed in CBDC pilot zones function offline in areas without internet access and automatically update balances when they contact internet-connected point-of-sale devices or train station ticket barriers.

Fraud Warnings Accompany Policy Change

The PBOC Digital Currency Research Institute issued warnings about fraudsters exploiting the new interest features to steal personal and financial data. Scammers promising cashback returns up to 5% have created fake chat rooms and hosted in-person events to convince people to “convert” digital yuan through unofficial channels.

These schemes involve phishing links, counterfeit apps, and fabricated investment platforms falsely presented as part of the official digital yuan rollout. The PBOC emphasized that e-CNY is a state-issued legal currency distributed solely through authorized commercial banks, government portals, and licensed platforms—not a speculative investment product.

The warning comes at a critical moment as China works to build public trust in its CBDC ahead of the enhanced framework launch. The government has maintained a strict stance against private cryptocurrencies while promoting the state-backed digital yuan as the only legitimate digital currency alternative.

The Road Ahead for Digital Yuan

China’s move to allow interest on digital yuan wallets represents the most significant policy change since the currency’s pilot launch in 2019. The action plan establishes a Digital RMB Management Committee to coordinate business lines and conduct supervision within the central bank’s responsibilities.

The PBOC has also pledged to expand cross-border use of the digital yuan, including a planned pilot with Singapore, while promoting CBDC payments with Thailand, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. In September 2024, the PBOC launched its e-CNY International Operation Center in Shanghai to expand the global influence of the Chinese yuan.

By making the digital yuan competitive with traditional deposit accounts, China aims to accelerate adoption of its CBDC while maintaining complete government control over the monetary system. The $188 million investment surge suggests that financial markets believe this strategy will succeed in driving broader use of the world’s most advanced central bank digital currency.