Saudi Arabia Leaves mBridge Cross-Border CBDC Platform After Finishing Trial
The Saudi central bank ended its participation in the China-backed project in May 2025, saying the exit was planned. US policymakers have flagged the platform as a possible sanctions workaround.
Illustration · generated, not a photograph
Saudi Arabia has pulled out of mBridge, a cross-border payment network built by several central banks around shared digital currency infrastructure, according to the Financial Times. The Saudi Central Bank, known as SAMA, confirmed the withdrawal in a statement cited by the FT.
SAMA joined as a full participant in June 2024 and wrapped up its involvement after completing a proof of concept on May 13, 2025. The central bank said the exit was planned from the outset rather than a change of course, per the FT's reporting.
What mBridge is
The project launched in 2021 through the Bank for International Settlements' Innovation Hub together with the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Its goal was to cut the cost and time involved in moving money across borders.
The design differs from private stablecoin arrangements. Rather than relying on a single token, participating central banks issue and settle in their own digital currencies on one shared ledger, handling cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions. The BIS stepped back in October 2024, handing the project to the participating central banks once it had reached a minimum viable product stage. Then-General Manager Agustín Carstens said the move was not driven by politics.
That handover did not quiet concerns in Washington. A 2024 report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said mBridge could in time offer countries looking to sidestep US sanctions an alternative settlement channel.
Cointelegraph said it asked SAMA for comment and had not received a reply by publication.
Separately, China's central bank has been paying closer attention to stablecoins as a tool for cross-border payments. In June, Wang Xin, director general of the People's Bank of China's Research Bureau, called for tighter monitoring of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies used in cross-border flows, and for more coordination between countries. His remarks followed Chinese restrictions on unauthorized issuance of renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, including by entities based abroad.
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