In traditional finance, deposits earn interest to compensate for clearing, custody, and liquidity services. Digitization, real-time settlement, 24/7 transfers, and low costs erode this value. When clearing efficiency nears zero, deposits compete solely on yield. Non-interest-bearing money risks outflows to alternatives like quasi-deposits, shadow currencies, or blockchain solutions. Interest-bearing digital RMB is a defensive response: the central bank preserves money’s centrality by adding time value.
Interest-bearing digital RMB introduces explicit time value to retail money without credit risk or leverage. It remains a central bank liability, holdable, liquid, with limited yield. This redefines money in the temporal dimension, bridging the gap between neutral cash and interest-bearing deposits/bonds.
Tokenized deposits focus on efficiency: faster settlement, programmability, and low friction. Interest-bearing digital RMB internalizes these, real-time, low-cost, high liquidity, within the institutional framework. Tokenized forms become supplementary tools, not core competitors. Technology’s narrative fades when efficiency is institutionally absorbed.
Traditionally, users’ creditor relationship is with commercial banks; the central bank stabilizes indirectly. Interest-bearing digital RMB makes this direct: users hold and configure central bank liabilities. Intermediaries reposition toward value-added services (payments, credit, asset management). Monetary policy transmission clarifies.
Interest-bearing digital RMB recalibrates central bank liabilities under digital conditions. It integrates tokenized efficiency, adds time value to retail money, and makes credit relationships explicit. This strengthens money’s role without relying on blockchain forms, offering an institutionally optimal solution for modern finance.
