mBridge

Overview

Project mBridge (the Multi-CBDC Bridge) is a multi-central-bank-digital-currency settlement platform for wholesale, cross-border payments and foreign-exchange settlement, built on distributed ledger technology (DLT). It lets participating central banks and their commercial banks reach one another directly on a single shared platform — the mBridge Ledger — for real-time, peer-to-peer cross-border payments with final settlement [1]1 [2]2.

mBridge is primarily a wholesale system: its core function is interbank/cross-border value transfer in central-bank money, not retail consumer payments. A retail/QR-style consumer leg is conceivable as an add-on (the platform is positioned as a testbed for FX, liquidity and add-on solutions), but the live, settled activity to date is wholesale cross-border settlement, dominated by China's e-CNY [2]2 [6]6.

History

mBridge grew out of earlier bilateral CBDC experimentation and was formalised in 2021 as a collaboration between the BIS Innovation Hub (Hong Kong Centre), the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the UAE, the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority [1]1. A real-value transaction pilot was conducted in 2022 [1]1.

On 5 June 2024, the project announced it had reached minimum viable product (MVP) stage, and at the same time the Saudi Central Bank joined as a full participant, expanding the core group to five central banks; the project also reported more than 26 observing members [2]2. By the BIS's own later count the observer group had grown to over 30 [1]1.

On 31 October 2024, BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens announced the BIS was ending its involvement and handing the project to the partner central banks. Carstens framed the exit as a graduation rather than a failure or a political decision, saying the BIS had been involved for four years "and it is at a level where the partners can carry it on by themselves." He explicitly pushed back on the platform being characterised as a sanctions-evasion or BRICS vehicle, stating "mBridge is not the BRICS bridge" and that the BIS maintains a strict policy of non-collaboration with sanctioned entities [7]7 [8]8. The five founding/participant central banks (China, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE, Saudi Arabia) continue to operate the project after the BIS handover [7]7.

Technical specification

• Ledger. The platform is built on a purpose-made blockchain, the mBridge Ledger, supporting real-time, peer-to-peer cross-border payments and FX transactions with final settlement [1]1 [2]2.
• EVM compatibility. The MVP is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, letting it serve as a testbed for additional technologies and add-on solutions (e.g. FX, liquidity management, AML) [1]1 [2]2.
• Validating nodes. Each of the four original founding central banks deployed a validating node [1]1.
• Single integrated platform. mBridge achieves interoperability with domestic traditional clearing systems while letting participants from multiple jurisdictions reach one another directly on one shared technical platform — collapsing the correspondent-banking chain [5]5.
• Settlement model. Designed to be "immediate, cheap and universally accessible," with final settlement on-ledger; the MVP is enabled to undertake real-value transactions subject to each jurisdiction's preparedness [1]1 [2]2.
• Governance / rulebook. A bespoke governance and legal framework — including a rulebook tailored to the platform's decentralised nature — was created by a steering committee, supported by five subcommittees (business, legal, policy, risk & compliance, and technology) [1]1 [2]2 [5]5.

Use cases

• Wholesale cross-border payments between commercial banks across participating jurisdictions, in central-bank money, without traversing the correspondent-banking network [2]2 [5]5.
• Cross-border FX settlement between the participating CBDCs [1]1.
• Trade settlement corridors among the participant economies (notably China, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE, Saudi Arabia) [6]6 [7]7.
• Testbed for add-on technology — FX, liquidity, and AML solutions — given EVM compatibility [1]1 [2]2.

Implementations

Participant central banks (post-BIS handover):

• People's Bank of China (Digital Currency Institute) — e-CNY
• Hong Kong Monetary Authority
• Bank of Thailand
• Central Bank of the UAE
• Saudi Central Bank (joined June 2024) [1]1 [2]2 [7]7

Former lead: BIS Innovation Hub (exited October 2024) [7]7.

Observers: 30+ observing organisations spanning central banks and multilateral institutions from across nearly every continent — including (among others) central banks of Australia, Brazil, Korea and India, the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve, and the IMF, World Bank and AIIB [1]1 [5]5.

Comparison

• vs nexus — Nexus (also incubated by the BIS Innovation Hub) interconnects existing domestic instant-payment systems (e.g. UPI-style fast rails) for retail cross-border payments via a hub-and-spoke standard. mBridge instead creates a new shared DLT settlement layer in CBDC for wholesale value transfer; Nexus is messaging/routing across existing rails, mBridge is settlement on a common ledger.
• vs buna — Buna (Arab Monetary Fund) is a multi-currency RTGS-style cross-border payment and settlement platform built on conventional centralised infrastructure; mBridge pursues the same cross-border-settlement goal but using a shared multi-CBDC DLT.
• vs SWIFT — SWIFT is a messaging network layered over correspondent banking, where settlement still hops through intermediary banks. mBridge collapses messaging and settlement into a single shared ledger with on-platform final settlement, removing intermediaries — which is the source of both its efficiency claims and the geopolitical attention it has drawn as a potential alternative to the dollar-centric correspondent system [5]5 [7]7.

Fun facts

• Despite five participating CBDCs, China's e-CNY accounts for an estimated ~95% of total settlement volume on mBridge [6]6.
• Settlement value grew roughly 2,500-fold from the 2022 real-value pilot to the figures reported by 2024-25 [6]6.
• The BIS went out of its way to deny mBridge was a "BRICS bridge" or a sanctions workaround — a sign of how closely the platform is watched as a possible challenger to dollar-based cross-border infrastructure [7]7 [8]8.

Status

Live MVP, partner-operated. mBridge reached MVP in June 2024, the BIS exited in October 2024, and the five partner central banks continue to run it. Cumulative cross-border settlement has surpassed USD 55 billion (about USD 55.5B) across 4,000+ transactions, with e-CNY making up ~95% of volume [1]1 [6]6 [7]7.

Sources

1 Project mBridge reached minimum viable product stage — BIS Innovation Hub, 2024 2 Project mBridge reaches minimum viable product stage and invites further international participation — Bank for International Settlements (press release), 2024 3 Project mBridge reaches MVP stage — Hong Kong Monetary Authority, 2024 4 Project mBridge reaches MVP stage — Government of the HKSAR, 2024 5 Project mBridge reaches MVP stage — OMFIF, 2024 6 China-led CBDC platform mBridge tops $55 billion in transaction volume — Cointelegraph via TradingView, 2025 7 BIS to leave cross-border payments platform Project mBridge / BIS cuts ties with mBridge — CryptoSlate, 2024 8 BIS to hand over Project mBridge to central banks — Central Banking, 2024

Deployments

No country reports mention this standard by name.

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

• Multilateral