Back in September last year, the People’s Bank of China released its blockchain trade finance platform as an ‘experiment’. This ‘experiment’ has now been reported as a massive success by Chinese media, reaching billions of dollars worth in transactions on foreign exchanges.

Blockchain has been on the cards for a while now with testing going on throughout China all the time but now, there is some solid data to go off. According to Sina Finance, the People’s Bank of China has processed around $4.5 billion in foreign exchange transactions on the blockchain platform. Now though, the platform incorporates more than 480 branches from just under thirty banks.

This might seem relatively impressive but even so, there is room for growth. Development in fintech technology is quite uneven and because of this, business volumes are still just a fraction of what could be on the platform.

As reported by Be in Crypto:

“Cross-border financing is a major responsibility of Chinese banks, and blockchain technology promises to cut costs to make the process more efficient. That said, with the country’s financial infrastructure being so lopsided, it will likely take a few years to balance out.”

Launching in Shenzhen, the blockchain platform is called Bay Area Trade Finance Blockchain Platform, or BATFB for short. On top of this, expansions are coming to the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau regions.

This is an effort being lead by the Central Bank Digital Currency Research Institute along with Bank of China. The primary purpose is to remove fraud and offer real-time transparency.

“However, the platform is for much more than just foreign currency transfers. Regulators are actively looking to expand it to include supply-chain logistics and international trade. The BATFB also signed an external tax filing with the Shenzhen Taxation Bureau last week, indicating that it is here to stay.”

Given the fact that China might be a bit hostile towards crypto, it is spearheading the way into integrating blockchain tech. So even though this could seem like bullish news for space in general, China is yet to loosen its laws in regards to these digital assets.



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