Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from the China-linked mBridge digital currency platform after concluding its central bank digital currency trial in May 2025. The move removes the kingdom from a cross-border payments initiative that has drawn attention in Washington over concerns it could weaken dependence on the US dollar.
A Financial Times report said the Saudi Central Bank, or SAMA, confirmed that it had ended its participation in mBridge after completing its planned proof-of-concept phase on May 13, 2025.
SAMA said its exit had always been included in its original plan to test the technology. The central bank joined mBridge as an observer in 2023 under the Bank for International Settlements, then contributed to developing the platform’s minimum viable product before carrying out its proof of concept in 2024.
“As planned, SAMA successfully completed its mBridge [proof of concept] on 13 May 2025. Following the completion of the PoC, SAMA is no longer a participating member of mBridge,”
the central bank said.
Saudi Arabia became an active participant in mBridge in 2024, joining China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. The Bank for International Settlements, which had supported the platform’s development, withdrew from the project in October of the same year.
Saudi Arabia Says mBridge Exit Followed Its Original Plan
Questions surrounding Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal have focused on whether Washington pressured Riyadh over concerns about payment systems that could function with less reliance on the US dollar and traditional correspondent banking networks.
A person familiar with the matter told the FT that it would be “inaccurate to draw any broader conclusion” from SAMA’s decision, as the central bank had only limited involvement in the mBridge project from the outset.
Another person familiar with the matter said SAMA no longer wanted a public role in the project but continued to participate through less visible channels.
The distinction is notable as mBridge has attracted political scrutiny in the United States. The blockchain-based system lets participating central banks conduct transactions in their own digital currencies, allowing payments and foreign exchange settlements to proceed without using the US dollar as an intermediary for every transaction.
Daleep Singh, who served as White House deputy national security adviser for international economics during former President Joe Biden’s administration, warned in 2025 that China could gain significant influence over standards covering privacy, security, interoperability and the enforcement of US sanctions through the platform.
President Donald Trump has also warned BRICS nations that they could face tariffs if they pursue alternatives aimed at reducing the US dollar’s role in international trade.
Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University professor and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the FT that many US allies consider platforms such as mBridge economically valuable because they can reduce heavy reliance on the dollar-dominated global financial system.
At the same time, Prasad said those countries remained wary of US opposition to projects that could weaken the dollar’s role or increase the renminbi’s use in global finance.
mBridge Moves Closer to Commercial Use
mBridge was designed as a wholesale CBDC platform to support direct cross-border payments among participating financial institutions. Its blockchain network enables central and commercial banks to process payments and foreign exchange settlements using digital forms of their respective national currencies.
China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE were among mBridge’s initial central bank participants, while the BIS Innovation Hub was initially involved in building the platform’s underlying infrastructure.
The project achieved its minimum viable product stage in 2024, enabling participating jurisdictions to move beyond initial experiments and begin testing transactions involving real value.
As previously reported, People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Lu Lei said in October 2024 that jurisdictions involved in mBridge would need to respect one another’s monetary policies while maintaining a balance between their respective rights and responsibilities.
Lu said the system should lower barriers and costs in cross-border payments without introducing additional geopolitical or compliance burdens. Former PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said at the time that mBridge’s relationship with the US dollar would depend not just on technological progress but also on policy choices made by Western countries.
The BIS withdrew from the initiative later in October 2024. Its then-general manager, Agustín Carstens, said the institution had “graduated out” of the project because the participating central banks could continue developing the system independently.
Carstens dismissed suggestions that the BIS withdrawal indicated mBridge had failed or that political factors had influenced the decision. The FT separately reported that Washington had pressured the institution to leave the project.
Macau has since joined the network, expanding mBridge beyond its previous group of participating monetary authorities. The system went live in Macau in June 2026, allowing local banks to access its cross-border CBDC infrastructure.
China Continues Expanding Cross-Border Digital Yuan Payments
China has continued developing alternative channels for international digital yuan settlements alongside its work on mBridge.
In July, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China completed the first digital yuan payment between China and Singapore through the upgraded Digital Currency Express platform. The transaction covered nearly 10 million yuan in import shipping fees, with the funds delivered to the Singapore recipient on the same day.
The Digital Currency Express system runs on China’s international digital yuan infrastructure and supports both centralized and blockchain-based settlement. Its 2026 upgrade brought earlier cross-border payment, blockchain services and digital asset systems together within a single network using ISO 20022 messaging standards.
ICBC later broadened its use of the infrastructure for cross-border payments, while its Inner Mongolia branch processed a 220 million yuan transfer to Hong Kong through the multilateral CBDC bridge.
Chinese authorities have also been expanding the digital yuan network within the domestic market. In August, the PBOC added eight commercial banks to the e-CNY operating network, bringing the total number of service operators to 30.
Official figures cited during China’s digital yuan framework update showed that the currency had handled 3.48 billion transactions by November 2025. From January 2026, verified digital yuan wallets could earn interest, as authorities expanded the currency beyond its earlier electronic cash model.
China’s central bank has continued to develop cross-border payments as part of its broader digital currency efforts. Wang Xin, director general of the PBOC Research Bureau, said in June that stablecoins could play a greater role in international payments while urging closer oversight of their impact on payment infrastructure and the global monetary system.
Wang urged central banks to maintain international cooperation on CBDCs as they test new settlement systems, while the PBOC has continued monitoring stablecoin activity as another possible channel for cross-border transactions.
Saudi Arabia remained among the jurisdictions listed in China’s cross-border digital yuan expansion plans even after SAMA said its mBridge proof of concept had ended. Chinese authorities outlined plans in 2026 to broaden cross-border e-CNY pilots involving Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while SAMA’s newly disclosed statement confirmed that its formal mBridge participation ended on May 13, 2025.
