The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics not only brought together the most prominent figures in winter sports. It was also the stage for the introduction of the digital yuan to users around the world, a project that the Central Bank of China began in 2014 and tested throughout 2021 in various locations across the country, totaling 260 million digital currency account holders and cumulative transactions worth the equivalent of US$14 billion by the end of 2021. China is the first major economy to launch its digital currency, following in the footsteps of smaller nations such as the Bahamas, Nigeria, and Cambodia, which have already done so.

Most of the world's central banks—including the Central Bank of Chile—havedigital currency projects at various stages of development. The main advantages of digital currencies are lower transaction costs, greater security, and ease of advancing financial inclusion (they are used through a mobile phone app or a physical card). One of their weaknesses, however, is that they could affect the privacy of transactions.