ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, the People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority jointly held the launch ceremony for the interconnection of the Mainland and Hong Kong Fast Payment System. The Cross-Border Payment Link will be launched on June 22, 2025. The introduction of the Cross-Border Payment Link is beneficial for improving the efficiency and service level of cross-border payments between the two regions, facilitating economic and trade activities and personnel exchanges, and consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's status as an international financial center.

ChainCatcher news, according to 8marketcap data, Ethereum's market capitalization has risen to 337.64 billion USD, surpassing the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, ranking 37th in global asset market capitalization.

ChainCatcher news, former Vice President of the Bank of China Wang Yongli published an article titled "The Accelerated Development of Dollar Stablecoins Brings Profound Warnings," in which he pointed out that the United States is legislating to protect and support the mining and trading of crypto assets, even making it a national strategic reserve. It supports the legal operation of dollar stablecoins and actively seizes the high ground in the fields of crypto assets and stablecoins, enhancing the demand for U.S. Treasury bonds and the international influence of the dollar, which has significant and far-reaching strategic implications. China needs to fully recognize and actively respond to this.Fortunately, Hong Kong is actively promoting the development of Web 3.0 along with crypto assets and Hong Kong dollar stablecoins. Companies from the mainland are also actively participating. The regulatory framework for stablecoins in Hong Kong is leading the world and can provide valuable references for the mainland. It requires high attention and in-depth research from the financial sector, academia, as well as judicial and regulatory departments in the mainland. Consideration could be given to launching an offshore RMB stablecoin in Hong Kong, initially used for overseas crypto asset trading payment and settlement, exploring the development of RMB stablecoins and even digital RMB.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, the People's Bank of China has lowered the one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) from 3.1% and 3.6% to 3% and 3.5%, respectively.

ChainCatcher News, on May 7, the Governor of the People's Bank of China, Pan Gongsheng, announced at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that the reserve requirement ratio will be lowered by 0.5 percentage points and the policy interest rate will be reduced by 0.1 percentage points.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by the Securities Times cited by the Financial Associated Press, recently multiple internet platforms have appeared with information such as "Shanghai is about to establish a digital renminbi bank" and "Recruiting digital renminbi promoters." The reporter verified with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China that the above information is all rumors.The reporter's investigation found that criminals are spreading false messages on the internet claiming "the digital renminbi bank is about to be established," while under the guise of "paid recruitment for promotion," they are conducting false propaganda to the public by forming chat groups and organizing online and offline meetings, enticing the public to provide personal identity and asset information, recruit others to join, and using the gimmick of "exchanging digital renminbi to receive a subsidy of 2% to 5%" to deceive the public into "exchanging" digital renminbi from criminals, causing a serious negative social impact.The digital renminbi is a digital form of legal currency, which does not have speculative space and will not induce users to disclose personal sensitive information or participate in pyramid schemes through promoting high commissions or high returns on cryptocurrency. Digital renminbi consumption red envelopes are generally obtained through regular channels such as commercial banks and other financial service entities, major government service platforms, qualified major e-commerce platforms, and offline stores.

ChainCatcher news, Zhou Xiaochuan, Vice Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and former Governor of the People's Bank of China, delivered a New Year outlook, pointing out that the world will face four major changes by 2025: the international environment will remain turbulent, uncertainty in global economic recovery will increase, rapid development of AI technology will bring both opportunities and challenges, and the climate change crisis will intensify. He also emphasized three unchanging trends: the continuous strengthening of global South countries, Asia's promotion of inclusive economic globalization, and China's deepening of reform and opening up.Zhou Xiaochuan mentioned that global public debt is about to exceed $100 trillion, which will increase the external financing costs and exchange rate depreciation pressures for emerging markets and developing countries, posing challenges to the fiscal sustainability of developed countries. The impact of digital encrypted assets on global financial stability and security needs to be monitored.

ChainCatcher News, former vice president of the Bank of China, Wang Yongli, in his article "Rational View on Trump's New Bitcoin Policy" published in the first issue of "China Foreign Exchange" in 2025, pointed out that Bitcoin highly mimics gold at the "currency" level, and is therefore referred to as "digital gold." However, Bitcoin is a purely blockchain-based digital asset, not a natural physical asset. Its value depends on the development space of its application scenarios and the amount of belief and investment from people. Bitcoin can be divided into one hundred million tiny units, providing greater payment flexibility, but it does not have real gold backing and does not belong to the strict definition of "paper gold." Once trust is lost, it will vanish into thin air and become worthless, with risks far greater than those of gold.Moreover, Trump's new Bitcoin policy is difficult to implement. First, it is challenging for the U.S. to have new Bitcoin. The development of quantum computing technology will also pose significant challenges to the security of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Second, the so-called national strategic reserves of Bitcoin, whether as government (fiscal) strategic reserves or the Federal Reserve (central bank) as strategic reserves for the U.S. dollar, carry risks and uncertainties. Replacing gold reserves with Bitcoin reserves is unlikely to have any practical benefits for the U.S. dollar and is difficult to use for repaying government debt. Furthermore, Trump's new Bitcoin policy contradicts his stance of strengthening the U.S. dollar as a global key currency.Therefore, Bitcoin can only be a new type of tradable wealth or digital asset, and it is difficult to become a true currency. It cannot replace sovereign currencies, and whether it can replace gold as a national strategic reserve remains highly questionable. The international community should treat Trump's new Bitcoin policy with calmness and objectivity, and not blindly follow the trend.

ChainCatcher news, according to the People's Bank of China official account, the People's Bank of China work conference will be held from January 3 to 4, 2025. The conference pointed out that in 2024, the financial management and service capabilities will continue to improve, and the research and application of the digital renminbi will be steadily advanced.In 2025, further optimization of the central bank's financial management and services will be carried out, strengthening the legal protection of the central bank's duties. A multi-level and diversified payment service system will be improved. The integration of information technology systems will be promoted in an orderly manner. The multi-level credit reporting market will be vigorously developed. The central bank's financial services in rural areas will be continuously optimized. Solid work will be done in economic and financial research, comprehensive statistics of the financial industry, currency issuance, digital renminbi research and development, treasury management, and international assessments of anti-money laundering, among other tasks.

ChainCatcher news, according to Xinmin Evening News, under the guidance of the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China, the Shanghai branch of Bank of China completed a corporate dividend transfer to Singapore using digital renminbi remittance, successfully landing the first cross-border digital renminbi capital account business between China and Singapore.The Shanghai branch of Bank of China actively supports the digital renminbi pilot work: in cooperation with the Shanghai Gold Exchange, it completed a cross-border settlement of 100 million yuan in digital renminbi for precious metal transactions, marking the first cross-border digital renminbi payment in the financial factor market; using digital renminbi to pay Baowu Group for imported iron ore, achieving a breakthrough in cross-border digital renminbi payments in the bulk commodity sector; during the 7th China International Import Expo, in collaboration with Shanghai Public Transport Card Co., Ltd., it held a product launch event for the "Smart Travel Card" within the expo venue, continuously expanding the application of digital renminbi in multiple scenarios.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, analysts say that over the past eight years, the price of Bitcoin has shown a positive correlation with the size of the Chinese central bank's balance sheet. The 30-day correlation coefficient between Bitcoin's price and the size of the Chinese central bank's balance sheet is 0.66. It has been positive except for 2016 and from the end of 2022 to 2023. On the other hand, Bitcoin's correlation with the Federal Reserve's balance sheet over 30 days is -0.88, the lowest level recorded since 2016.The Chinese central bank is considering launching an economic stimulus plan of up to 1 trillion yuan (approximately 142 billion USD) to boost the economy, which has led to a significant rise in Asian stock markets, particularly the notable increase in the CSI 300 index.Analysts believe that this stimulus plan may indirectly benefit Bitcoin, as it could increase investment in blockchain and cryptocurrency-related projects. This monetary easing policy may drive more capital into the digital asset space.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, Presto Research's analyst based in Singapore, Rick Maeda, pointed out that today's interest rate cut and reserve requirement ratio reduction by the People's Bank of China hardly triggered a reaction in the cryptocurrency market, but led to a rise in Asian stock markets, with the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index up 3.2% and the Shanghai Composite Index up 4.15%.The lack of response from Bitcoin to this news contrasts with the rise in Chinese stock indices, highlighting that its current beta seems to be more closely linked to Federal Reserve policy and the U.S. market, especially after last week's FOMC meeting, with the correlation to U.S. stocks nearing a two-year high.

ChainCatcher news, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has launched the Ensemble project sandbox to promote tokenization applications. According to disclosed information, a total of 25 institutions are participating in the first phase, including the four major banks: HSBC, Bank of China Hong Kong, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered, as well as Ant Group and HashKey Group.The first phase of the sandbox will focus on four major tokenized asset use case themes: fixed income and investment funds, liquidity management, green and sustainable finance, and trade and supply chain financing.Hang Seng Bank's Executive Director and CEO, Angela Wong, stated that this testing provides valuable experience for tokenized deposits and asset trading, helping to improve the efficiency of existing settlement processes and reduce settlement risks, laying the foundation for the future development of new financial market infrastructure. Following this sandbox test, Hang Seng will continue to actively participate in the testing and research of Ensemble project use cases.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Hong Kong Economic Journal, in response to the recent push for financial product reform and innovation by Hong Kong's financial regulatory authorities, BOC International Securities has begun asset allocation and is currently actively launching virtual asset futures ETFs.

ChainCatcher news, the chairman of the Shanghai Clearing House, Ma Jianyang, led a team to visit and investigate the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China. The director of the Digital Currency Research Institute, Mu Changchun, met and held discussions, and both parties signed a business cooperation agreement. The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on topics such as the positioning of their respective financial infrastructure responsibilities, strategic planning, and innovation paths, and unanimously agreed to take the signing of the business cooperation agreement as an opportunity to provide precise and effective services for the central bank's duties and the high-quality development of the financial market through solid and orderly system connections and business collaboration, thereby implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and contributing to the realization of the goal of a strong financial nation.

ChainCatcher news, according to WatcherGuru, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) praised the development of Bitcoin and Ethereum in a recently published report, comparing Bitcoin to gold and emphasizing its rapid growth in the digital economy, while referring to Ethereum as "digital oil," pointing out that its ecosystem is driving numerous Web3 applications and projects in the ever-growing market.

ChainCatcher News: The Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China recently held a work meeting for 2024, which emphasized the need to persistently prevent and resolve financial risks. Strengthen risk monitoring in key areas. Properly handle risky institutions. Prevent and address risks related to speculation in virtual currency trading. Strictly investigate financial illegal activities. Deepen the governance of "funding chains" related to gambling and fraud. Enhance the effectiveness of anti-money laundering supervision. Establish a long-term mechanism for "credit repair" governance. Ensure additional supervision of systemically important financial institutions.The meeting also pointed out the need to continuously improve the level of basic financial services and deepen the innovative application of the digital renminbi. Explore innovative applications of the digital renminbi.

ChainCatcher news, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced new digital finance and capital market initiatives, including a cross-border digital yuan pilot between China and Singapore, allowing travelers from both countries to use digital yuan for tourism consumption in Singapore and China, in order to expand financial cooperation with China.

ChainCatcher News, the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of the UAE have renewed a currency swap agreement in Hong Kong worth 35 billion RMB / 18 billion dirhams (4.9 billion USD), extending the bilateral currency swap agreement for five years to promote financial and economic ties. The two parties also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Cooperation in Central Bank Digital Currency to enhance technical cooperation in the development of central bank digital currencies. The renewed agreement will promote bilateral trade and strengthen financial cooperation between the two countries, and will facilitate the provision of liquidity to financial markets in local currencies, enabling more effective and efficient settlement of cross-border financial and trade transactions.