Atlantic Council: China Builds Multi-Layer Payments Network Beyond Digital Yuan
If large-business and public-sector payments are driving the transaction-value surge while retail adoption stagnates, the e-CNY's near-term strategic function is as a wholesale and intergovernmental settlement rail rather than a consumer currency — which is precisely the layer that matters for sanctions evasion by state-linked entities in Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.
The DCEPS consolidation of smart contracts onto the same platform as issuance means Beijing can embed conditionality into renminbi flows at the infrastructure level, a capability no Western correspondent-banking network currently matches.
The PBOC's expansion to thirty e-CNY operating banks — now including city commercial banks — and the October launch of the Digital Currency & Electronic Payment System (DCEPS) consolidating issuance, retail and wholesale payments, and smart contracts onto one platform moves China's renminbi infrastructure from pilot to operational plumbing.
The 123 percent year-on-year rise in transaction value against only 12 percent growth in transaction count points to large-business and public-sector adoption driving volume, not retail penetration — which means the network's strategic utility for sanctions-circumventing state-linked entities is growing faster than headline wallet numbers suggest.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Financial Stability Board now face a system with two cross-border platforms and a widened CIPS, not the single-track e-CNY they have been tracking.
Which specific countries or institutions have connected to the second cross-border platform launched alongside Project mBridge, and what transaction volumes are flowing through it versus CIPS?
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