Saudi Arabia withdraws from China-backed mBridge digital currency project

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from mBridge, a China-backed cross-border digital currency project designed to enable direct transactions between central banks, according to the Financial Times.

SAMA, Saudi Arabia’s central bank, joined mBridge as a full participant in June 2024 and ended its participation after completing a proof of concept on May 13, 2025, FT reported, citing a statement from the central bank. SAMA said it had planned to end its participation.

MBridge was established in 2021 through a collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, with the aim of making cross-border payments faster and cheaper.

Rather than using a single stablecoin, the platform allows participating central banks to issue and transact in their own digital currencies on a shared ledger, including for cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions.

The project continued to develop under the BIS until October 2024, when the organization handed it over to the participating central banks after mBridge reached its minimum viable product stage. Then-BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens said the BIS departure was not politically motivated.

The project has nevertheless drawn scrutiny from US policymakers. A 2024 report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said mBridge could eventually provide an alternative cross-border settlement system for countries seeking to evade US sanctions.

Cointelegraph contacted the Saudi Central Bank for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Related: Chinese newspaper warns of Bitcoin extortion scam using its name

China weighs digital currencies’ role in cross-border payments

China’s central bank, meanwhile, has increasingly focused on the role stablecoins could play in cross-border payments as their use expands globally.

In June, People’s Bank of China Research Bureau director General Wang Xin called for closer monitoring of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies in cross-border payments, along with greater international coordination.

His comments came months after Chinese authorities restricted the unauthorized issuance of renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, including by foreign entities.