Saudi Arabia withdrew from mBridge, the wholesale CBDC platform for cross border payments, according to a Financial Times report, citing official confirmation. Given Saudi announced it was joining the platform in 2024 but hasn’t yet publicly processed any transactions, its withdrawal is not surprising.
Last year sources told Ledger Insights that the central bank SAMA was still actively engaging, and according to the FT it completed a proof of concept in May 2025. SAMA said the withdrawal was planned from the outset, having “successfully completed” the PoC.
mBridge is a collaboration between the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE, with Macau going live earlier this year. The Bank for International Settlements withdrew from the project a few months after Saudi Arabia joined, stating the project had graduated. At the time there were discussions about mBridge evolving into BRICS Bridge which would encompass sanctioned countries such as Russia, so the BIS’ withdrawal avoided that messiness.
One of the goals of the platform is to promote greater use of local currencies which sidesteps the dollar and the potential for sanctions. President Trump has threatened BRICS countries with 100% tariffs if they pursue alternatives to the dollar. Through 2025, the digital RMB dominated transactions accounting for 95% of volumes on a distributed ledger platform that uses technology developed by the People’s Bank of China.
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