Since 1986, Visa has served as the exclusive payment service provider for the Olympic Games, complimenting cash as one of the only two ways to pay for anything at official Olympic venues. If you’re at the Olympics and need to pay with a credit card, or if you’re online and want to buy tickets for an upcoming Games, Visa is the only way to go.
That was until Beijing 2022.
Inside the “Olympic bubble”—a dynamic quarantine zone China operates throughout the Olympic Village in Beijing—athletes, media, staff, and all other guests have three payment options available, rather than the usual two. Visa, cash, or China’s digital currency, the e-CNY.
“The Olympics has always been scheduled by the People’s Bank of China as the global coming out party for the digital yuan,” says Richard Turrin, author of Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution.
China began rolling out its…
