Saudi exit from mBridge follows 800 percent volume jump

Saudi Arabia withdrew from China’s mBridge cross-border payments program in 2025, a departure the Saudi government confirmed to the Financial Times. The Financial Times reported that the exit had not been publicly disclosed before Sunday. This withdrawal occurs while the payment system was experiencing rapid growth.

The Bank for International Settlements states that the Saudi Central Bank joined the project in 2024, alongside China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. The Bank for International Settlements initially led mBridge but has since stepped back from the initiative. The system employs blockchain technology to settle transactions directly between central banks using digital currencies, which reduces the role of the dollar as an intermediary.

The Financial Times cited a source familiar with the matter who described it as “inaccurate to draw any wider inference” from the decision, noting that Saudi involvement was already limited. Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University and senior fellow at Brookings, observed that U.S. allies view such initiatives as a way to lessen reliance on the dollar-dominated system but remain “acutely sensitive to U.S. pushback against initiatives seen as potentially reducing the dollar’s importance and, even worse, boosting the Chinese renminbi’s role in international finance.”

An Atlantic Council report indicates that mBridge processed 4,047 transactions with a total volume of $55.49 billion as of November 2025. New data released by the People’s Bank of China at the end of December characterizes this as a more than 800 percent increase from 2023. The Atlantic Council analysis notes that mBridge had handled just 160 transactions worth $22 million by October 2022. President Trump has threatened BRICS nations with 100 percent tariffs if they pursue alternatives to the dollar, a constraint that complicates the path for any remaining participants.