China continues to quietly test a pilot version of its national digital currency as well as setting up a legal framework for CBDCs with global financial regulators, RT News reports.

The digital yuan, which is controlled and issued by the China government, is a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The People’s Bank of China officially calls the project “Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP),” though it hasn’t assigned a monetary value right now because the CBDC has not launched to the public yet.

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Beijing’s central bank has reportedly further engaged an ongoing initiative based in Hong Kong. Called ‘Project Inthanon-LionRock,’ the project builds on the work between the Bank of Thailand and Hong Kong Monetary Authority to study the application of central bank digital currency for cross-border payments.

This is not the first time that China is testing its proposed cryptocurrency. The Asian giant completed a few trials of the coin and is currently rolling it out on major e-commerce platforms within the country. The digital version of the yuan has been under development for slightly more than five years, but the authorities are still far from a nationwide rollout and have instead focused on pilot projects.

JD.com, the country’s second-largest online retailer, has become the first online platform to accept the country’s digital currency. A total of 20 million yuan ( worth nearly $3 million) was up for grabs in a lottery organized by JD.com’s fintech arm.

Those who received the digital yuan were able spend it on JD.com’s online shopping platform as part of a real-world trial for the cryptocurrency.

The move, however, was an acknowledgment of the fact that long-time attempts to stamp out the crypto ‎frenzy by shutting down service providers at home have failed to ‎completely kill the mania that had been sweeping China.‎

China’s raid on the digital asset class, which started in ‎September 2017, failed to dampen local investors’ enthusiasm, as many have resorted to online payment accounts and P2P venues to get ‎around the crackdown. ‎