The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has signaled a significant tightening of its regulatory stance on private cryptocurrencies while simultaneously accelerating the development and international rollout of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan (e-CNY). The policy direction was outlined in the minutes from the PBOC's 2026 Working Conference, held on January 5–6, 2026.
The central bank declared its commitment to strengthening oversight and regulation in the "virtual currencies" field, vowing to increase the fight against related illegal activities. Officials stressed the need for stricter and more standardized enforcement of China's existing ban on crypto trading and mining, aiming to close regulatory loopholes. A notable development was the explicit classification of stablecoins as virtual currencies, with the PBOC warning they pose elevated risks for money laundering and illegal cross-border capital flows.
In stark contrast, the PBOC reaffirmed that the digital RMB ecosystem will be grown "cautiously but steadily." The conference highlighted a major functional upgrade to the e-CNY framework, which took effect on January 1, 2026. This upgrade transitions the digital yuan from a cash-like instrument to digital deposit money, allowing commercial banks to pay interest on e-CNY balances—a move designed to boost adoption and deeper integration with the traditional banking system.
Furthermore, the PBOC pointed to its newly established global operation center in Shanghai, intended to support the internationalization of the digital yuan and build cross-border settlement infrastructure. This underscores China's ambition to expand the e-CNY's role beyond domestic retail use.
The conference also placed a strong emphasis on broader financial security, calling for the development of a new financial statistics infrastructure compatible with a modern central banking system. Monitoring will be intensified in critical areas like the indebtedness of local financing platforms.
