A first in Olympic history

A lot of people thought it was a waste of money… But not China.

Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Chinese government has spent years preparing… and spared no expense.

The direct cost of the event was $40 billion. At the time, it was the most expensive Olympics of all time. China knew this was its chance to present itself to the world. It could prove that it is no longer a poor and “backward” nation, but a great superpower.

What’s more, all this spending on modernizing Beijing and its environs continues to pay off.

Today, with 22 subway lines, getting around Beijing is as easy as any western city. And months before the pandemic hit, Beijing’s brand new Daxing International Airport was able to handle up to 100 million passengers each year – more than double the city’s capacity.

After years of uninterrupted development, it’s hard to imagine what else Beijing could build before it gets its next chance to shine…

You see, Beijing will be hosting the Winter Olympics in just 11 months. This time, the expected price is a modest $3.9 billion. That’s no surprise – again, most of the infrastructure is already in place.

But if Beijing has its way – and it usually does – there will be a new aspect to the Olympics, which are set to take place next year…

That’s the complete absence of physical cash. No paper bills. No coins. Digital currency only.

Today I’m going to share why this crazy thought is an almost certainty…

China has been working on this project for some time. And now the Olympics have become the goal of getting things off the ground.

In short, the Chinese government has paved the way for this major shift in how people handle money in the world’s second largest economy. But what might surprise you is that China is already mostly cashless…

The word – cashless – sounds perfectly normal to anyone who knows China today.

The country is ground zero for the cashless (or mobile) payment revolution that is now sweeping across many parts of the world.

Two years ago, Kevin Lu, an analyst at CICC (China’s largest investment bank), spoke to us about what it’s like…

“Not only in Beijing but even in my hometown, I don’t need a wallet at all,” he said. “The only thing that concerns me is the battery of my mobile phone.”

It was part of a documentary called New Money: The greatest wealth-building event in history. Steve produced it with Stansberry Research to help investors better understand the breathtaking changes happening in China.

(If you haven’t seen the documentary yet, I highly recommend it. It has more than 9 million Views on YouTube. And it will probably be one of the best hours you spend looking at anything online. You can see it here.)

Cashlessness became a reality in China thanks to the country’s two main mobile payment systems, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

They are owned by the two largest Internet companies in China, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and Tencent (HK: 0700). Alipay and WeChat Pay work as apps on your phone that are linked to your bank account or credit card.

Each has more than 1 billion users in China, showing how widespread they have become in the country. And more and more companies no longer accept physical cash as a means of payment – only Alipay or WeChat Pay.

The speed at which the country has gone from a cash-based to a cashless society is simply amazing. Just look at the table below…

In less than a decade, China’s consumers have gone from paying almost exclusively with cash (and less often credit cards) to paying for almost everything using their cell phones.

Hell, there are probably people in China who have never put their hands on cash.

Well, China’s goal is to host the Olympics entirely without cash… And I bet it will happen.

Additionally, this widespread adoption of digital payments makes China fertile ground for a national digital currency — the first of any major economy. And as I will explain tomorrow, the wheels are already in motion.

invest well,

Brian Tycangco

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