Saudi Arabia ended its mBridge participation after completing its CBDC trial in May 2025. mBridge enables direct cross-border payments and FX settlement using wholesale CBDCs. The UAE remains
Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from mBridge, the multi-central-bank digital currency platform involving China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, after completing its planned experiment with the technology.
The Saudi Central Bank, or SAMA, told the Financial Times that its proof of concept concluded on May 13, 2025, after which the kingdom did not participate in subsequent stages. The Saudi trial took place in a test environment rather than using real financial transactions. A person familiar with the decision cautioned against interpreting the departure as evidence of a broader political shift.
Saudi Arabia’s involvement had been relatively short. SAMA formally joined the minimum viable product phase in June 2024 to evaluate whether wholesale central bank digital currencies could improve cross-border payments between commercial banks.
The exit still attracts attention because mBridge has become part of a much larger debate over the infrastructure underpinning global payments and the role of the U.S. dollar.
mBridge was designed around a different model from conventional correspondent banking.
International payments can require commercial banks to maintain relationships and prefunded accounts with intermediaries in other jurisdictions. Transactions can pass through several institutions before reaching their destination, adding costs, operational complexity and settlement delays.
mBridge instead created a shared blockchain called the mBridge Ledger, where participating central and commercial banks can conduct peer-to-peer cross-border payments and foreign-exchange transactions using wholesale CBDCs.
The technology has already been tested with real money outside the Saudi experiment.
In a six-week 2022 pilot, 20 commercial banks from China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE conducted 164 payment and FX transactions worth more than $22 million. More than $12 million in CBDCs was issued onto the platform.
Earlier testing found that international transfers could be completed in seconds rather than several days, while estimated user costs could fall by as much as half.
The platform is not simply a blockchain replacement for SWIFT messaging.
One of its more important functions is payment-versus-payment settlement, or PvP, for foreign-exchange transactions. Under PvP, the transfer of one currency is completed only if the corresponding transfer of the other currency also occurs.
That addresses settlement risk, where one side of an FX transaction delivers its currency but does not receive the currency owed by its counterparty.
The issue remains substantial in global markets. BIS data for April 2025 found that just over $5 trillion, or 36% of average daily FX settlement, used PvP, while more than $1.4 trillion was settled gross bilaterally and remained fully exposed to settlement risk.
A multi-CBDC platform can bring both sides of an eligible cross-border transaction onto common infrastructure, allowing settlement to occur directly rather than coordinating separate payment chains.
That is the financial infrastructure proposition behind mBridge, independent of the geopolitical debate surrounding it.
The political sensitivity comes from what such infrastructure could eventually allow.
A shared CBDC network can enable banks in participating jurisdictions to settle directly in their respective currencies. That could reduce the need for some transactions to pass through dollar-based correspondent banking channels.
It is important, however, to separate that capability from claims that mBridge was specifically created to replace the dollar.
The BIS described its objective as improving cost, speed, operational complexity and access to cross-border payments, particularly where correspondent banking relationships have declined.
The Financial Times reports that U.S. officials have nevertheless been concerned that China could use the project to increase its influence over international payment standards and create routes capable of reducing reliance on dollar infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia sits in an especially important position in that discussion because of its economic relationships with both countries. China is a major trading partner for the kingdom, while Saudi Arabia maintains deep financial and security relationships with the United States.
The Saudi riyal also remains pegged to the U.S. dollar, making participation in experiments involving alternative settlement rails different from abandoning the existing dollar-centered monetary framework.
SAMA’s decision therefore provides evidence that one CBDC experiment ended, but not evidence of a wider Saudi decision about the dollar, China or future digital-currency infrastructure.
mBridge also differs from many of the CBDC projects that have generated political controversy elsewhere.
It uses wholesale CBDCs, designed for transactions between central banks, commercial banks and other eligible financial institutions. Consumers are not intended to hold mBridge currencies in retail wallets or use them for everyday purchases.
SAMA explicitly described mBridge as a wholesale CBDC system when it joined in 2024, with its research focused on improving cross-border payment and settlement between commercial banks.
The distinction helps explain why central banks can experiment with mBridge without committing to a retail digital currency for the general population.
Saudi Arabia’s departure does not remove the Gulf from the project.
The Central Bank of the UAE was one of the four founding monetary authorities alongside the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China, Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank of Thailand. Each founding authority deployed a validating node as mBridge progressed toward its minimum viable product stage.
The BIS itself stepped away in October 2024 after the project reached that stage, handing further development to the participating central banks. Its current project page lists the BIS initiative as concluded while documenting the platform’s transfer to its partners. Saudi Arabia’s exit therefore changes mBridge’s membership more than its underlying technical proposition.
The more useful test for the platform will be whether the remaining participants move from experimentation toward sustained real-value settlement between commercial banks. For Saudi Arabia, the corresponding question is whether SAMA’s next wholesale CBDC experiment uses another shared platform or takes a different route toward faster cross-border settlement.
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