Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from mBridge, a China-led cross-border digital currency platform designed to make international payments faster and more efficient while reducing some of the traditional reliance on correspondent banking and intermediary currencies.
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) confirmed that it stopped participating in the project after successfully completing its proof-of-concept phase on May 13, 2025. The withdrawal was not announced publicly at the time and became widely reported on September 20, 2026.
Importantly, SAMA said its departure was part of the original plan for its participation. That means the decision should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that Saudi Arabia abandoned digital-currency research or that the country withdrew because of pressure from the United States.
Saudi Arabia Completed Its mBridge Proof of Concept in 2025
SAMA first joined the mBridge project as an observing member in 2023. In 2024, Saudi Arabia became a full participant as the platform moved toward its minimum viable product, or MVP, stage.
According to SAMA, its participation focused on research into wholesale central bank digital currencies and their potential use in improving cross-border payment and settlement between commercial banks.
SAMA later confirmed that its mBridge proof of concept was successfully completed on May 13, 2025. Following completion of that exercise, the Saudi central bank was no longer a participating member of the project.
The Financial Times reported the development on September 20, 2026, bringing public attention to a withdrawal that had occurred more than a year earlier.
What Is mBridge?
mBridge is a multi-central-bank digital currency project developed to explore how distributed ledger technology can be used for cross-border payments and settlement.
The project was developed through cooperation involving the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Saudi Arabia joined as a full participant in 2024.
The platform reached its minimum viable product stage in mid-2024. The BIS says mBridge was designed to explore a shared multi-central-bank digital currency infrastructure capable of supporting instant cross-border payments and settlement.
Its underlying technology uses distributed ledger technology, with the mBridge Ledger designed to support real-time peer-to-peer cross-border payments and foreign-exchange transactions.
The project's stated objectives included addressing some of the major problems associated with conventional international payments, including high costs, slow settlement and operational complexity.
Why mBridge Matters for Cross-Border Payments
Traditional international payments can involve multiple financial institutions, correspondent banks and payment networks before money reaches its final destination. That structure can increase costs, settlement times and operational complexity.
mBridge was designed to investigate whether multiple jurisdictions could instead connect through a common digital infrastructure using central bank digital currencies.
In practical terms, the technology could allow participating financial institutions to settle eligible cross-border transactions more directly using digital representations of central bank money.
The BIS has described the project as an attempt to make cross-border payments more immediate, cheaper and more accessible while addressing inefficiencies in existing correspondent-banking arrangements.
Could mBridge Reduce Reliance on the U.S. Dollar?
This is one of the reasons mBridge has attracted international attention.
The platform was not created as a replacement currency for the U.S. dollar. Instead, its technology could reduce the need for an intermediary currency in some cross-border transactions by allowing participating jurisdictions to settle directly through their own central-bank digital currencies.
The Financial Times reported that the system is intended to reduce the role of the dollar as an intermediary in certain foreign-exchange transactions.
That distinction is important. It would be inaccurate to say that mBridge has replaced the dollar, or that Saudi Arabia's withdrawal represents the collapse of the dollar-based international financial system.
Instead, mBridge represents one of several experiments by central banks around the world to improve cross-border payment infrastructure and explore alternatives to parts of the traditional correspondent-banking model.
Saudi Arabia Says the Withdrawal Was Planned
The Saudi position is central to understanding the development.
SAMA said it initially joined mBridge under the BIS umbrella as an observing member in 2023. It subsequently participated in development of the platform's minimum viable product and its proof-of-concept work.
The central bank said it successfully completed its proof of concept on May 13, 2025, and was no longer a participating member after that stage.
That explanation indicates that Saudi Arabia's formal participation was structured around a specific research and testing phase rather than an open-ended commitment to the platform.
Therefore, the Saudi withdrawal should not be presented as proof that Riyadh rejected wholesale CBDCs, blockchain-based payment infrastructure or cross-border digital currencies altogether.
Was Saudi Arabia Pressured by the United States?
There has been speculation about whether geopolitical pressure influenced Saudi Arabia's decision, particularly because mBridge has attracted attention in Washington.
However, there is no verified evidence establishing that U.S. pressure was the reason for Saudi Arabia's withdrawal.
The Financial Times reported that a person familiar with the situation said it would be inaccurate to draw a broader inference from the Saudi decision or directly link it to U.S. pressure, given the limited nature of Saudi Arabia's involvement.
Another person familiar with the matter told the newspaper that SAMA no longer wanted to remain publicly involved with the project, while suggesting that some engagement could continue more discreetly. That claim is attributed to the source and should not be treated as an official Saudi policy statement.
The safest interpretation, based on the available public evidence, is therefore that Saudi Arabia completed its planned proof-of-concept participation and subsequently ended its formal membership.
The BIS Also Left mBridge in 2024
Saudi Arabia is not the only institution whose formal role in mBridge has changed.
The Bank for International Settlements announced in October 2024 that it was handing the project over to the participating central banks after the platform reached the MVP stage.
The BIS currently lists Project mBridge as “Concluded”. Its project page says the initiative was handed over to its central-bank partners in October 2024.
Former BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens described the institution's departure as having “graduated out” of the project rather than leaving because the initiative had failed.
This is another reason why the timeline matters: the BIS's formal exit and Saudi Arabia's later withdrawal were separate events.
Saudi Arabia's Digital Payments Strategy
SAMA's participation in mBridge was part of a broader effort to examine how emerging financial technology could improve cross-border payments.
When Saudi Arabia joined the mBridge MVP platform in June 2024, SAMA said it was investigating wholesale CBDCs and their potential to improve the effectiveness of cross-border payment and settlement between commercial banks.
SAMA also described its participation as part of its effort to build a robust and innovative cross-border payments infrastructure in cooperation with international financial institutions and central banks.
Saudi Arabia's withdrawal from one project therefore does not by itself establish a broader reversal of the country's interest in digital payment technology.
China's Role in mBridge
China has been one of the major participants in mBridge through the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China.
The project grew out of international cooperation that began in 2021, involving China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the BIS Innovation Hub.
The platform's development has attracted geopolitical attention because a payment infrastructure that allows direct digital-currency settlement between jurisdictions could eventually change how some international transactions are conducted.
However, mBridge should not be described as a Chinese replacement for the global financial system. It is more accurately described as a multi-jurisdictional payment technology project in which China is a major participant.
Saudi Arabia's Exit Does Not Mean mBridge Has Failed
Saudi Arabia's withdrawal is significant, but it does not mean the mBridge project itself has failed.
The BIS has already handed the project to participating central banks, and the platform has continued to attract interest from other jurisdictions.
According to the Financial Times, the Monetary Authority of Macao joined the platform in 2026 and activated the system for participating banks in June. The development indicates that activity around the platform has continued despite changes in individual participants.
Business Standard also reported that Macao launched the system in June 2026 and that participating banks conducted cross-border transactions through the platform.
What Saudi Arabia's Withdrawal Means for the Dollar
The development is likely to receive attention because Saudi Arabia has traditionally been closely connected to the dollar-based global financial system.
But one country's withdrawal from a digital payment experiment does not fundamentally change the international role of the U.S. dollar.
What mBridge demonstrates is that central banks are actively investigating technologies that could make some international payments less dependent on traditional intermediary structures.
If such systems become widely adopted, they could change the mechanics of cross-border payments over time. But that is a longer-term possibility rather than an established outcome.
The dollar remains deeply embedded in international trade, foreign-exchange markets, banking and global financial infrastructure. mBridge should therefore be viewed as part of the broader evolution of payment technology rather than as evidence that a new global currency system has already emerged.
What Happens to mBridge Next?
The next stage for mBridge will depend on how participating jurisdictions develop the platform and whether commercial banks use it for larger volumes of real-world transactions.
The BIS says the MVP platform was capable of real-value transactions, subject to jurisdictional readiness, and was designed to support additional technology solutions, new use cases and interoperability with other platforms.
The future significance of mBridge will therefore depend less on the participation of any single country and more on whether the underlying infrastructure can achieve sustained adoption across multiple jurisdictions.
Bottom Line
Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from the China-led mBridge digital currency platform after completing its planned proof of concept on May 13, 2025.
SAMA's explanation is that the proof-of-concept phase was successfully completed and that its participation ended as planned. The withdrawal became publicly known in September 2026.
While mBridge has geopolitical implications because its technology could allow some cross-border transactions to occur without the dollar serving as an intermediary, there is no verified basis for stating that Saudi Arabia left because of U.S. pressure.
The development is best understood as another step in the rapidly evolving global experiment with central bank digital currencies, distributed-ledger payment infrastructure and faster cross-border settlement.
For now, mBridge remains an important case study in how central banks are exploring new ways to move money across borders — and how technology, monetary policy and geopolitics increasingly intersect in the future of global payments.
Sources
- Financial Times — Saudi Arabia quits China-led cross-border currency platform
- Bank for International Settlements — Project mBridge
- BIS — Project mBridge reaches minimum viable product stage
- Saudi Central Bank — SAMA Joins mBridge Project as MVP Platform Participant
Editorial note: This article distinguishes confirmed statements from attributed interpretations. Claims about U.S. pressure or Saudi Arabia's possible continued private engagement are presented as reported claims rather than established facts.
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