For decades, America’s largest card network has been the exclusive electronic-payments provider at the world’s largest sporting event. At this year’s Beijing Games, however,
finds itself having to share the spotlight with China’s new digital currency, the e-CNY.
China has been at the forefront of digitizing payments, thanks in large part to the popular mobile networks Alipay and
Pay, operated by Chinese internet giants Ant Group Co. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., respectively. The mass adoption of digital payments in the world’s most populous nation has made the use of physical cash virtually obsolete—a trend that has alarmed China’s central bank, which has been conducting small-scale rollout trials for its digitized legal tender since late 2019.
At previous Olympics,…
