“The coronavirus outbreak ended up postponing the work of government institutions, including the People's Bank of China. Legislators and research teams that are involved with DCEP are no exception, which ended up weighing on the development process.

Even so, the launch of Yuan Digital will take place according to plan, with the country's central bank already possessing the technological base, resources and researchers sufficient to accelerate the process after the end of the crisis.

The pilot project for the Electronic Payment System with Digital Currency (DCEP) will take place according to the schedule, later this year. However, members of the Central Bank are still discussing the applications and use cases where DCEP will circulate as genuine money.

The outbreak of COVID-19 (caused by the coronavirus) is affecting different markets and this is no different with cryptocurrencies. According to a Sputnik report, the development of Yuan Digital, China's central cryptocurrency, is stalled because of the virus outbreak in the country.

Citing sources close to the development of the cryptocurrency, the website said China's research on the digital asset, which would begin in the first quarter of 2020, has been delayed because of the need to contain the country's current virus outbreak.