Fake Website Prompts China’s Central Bank to Deny Digital Yuan Launch

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said the country’s stablecoin project is still in the testing stage with no date set for its launch, despite online impostors claiming otherwise.

The digital yuan is officially called the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DECP) and the central bank’s announcement came on the heels of a website DECPAPI.com, featuring an API with a countdown indicating that the national stablecoin would launch on November 20.

“Anything that is trading in the market under the name of DC/EP or DCEP is not the national digital currency, and any launch time suggested on the Internet is inaccurate,” the central bank said on Wednesday in the statement.

The bank also warned potential investors of the rise of scams and ponzi schemes being offered in the name of the digital currency.

“We did not authorize any platform to trade DCEP,” the bank said. “Investors should be aware of companies that pose as the central bank to attract people to ‘trade’ the digital currency, which could be fraught with misleading information.”

The PBoC is running the develop of the stablecoin via its Digital Currency Research Institute, established in 2014 under the supervision of the bank’s payments department.

After a relatively quiet five-year development period, the central bank began releasing more details about DCEP following Facebbok’s unveiling of Libra in June.

Forbes reported in August the national digital currency would be launched on Nov.11, citing an unnamed official from the Chinese government. In September, the central bank denied that date, and said there was no plan to launch the stablecoin within the next 80 days, or before Dec. 10.

Chinese currency renminbi via Shutterstock