Saudi Arabia withdraws from mBridge CBDC project after proof of concept

Saudi Arabia’s central bank, SAMA, has exited the mBridge project—a China-backed initiative aimed at streamlining cross-border payments using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The decision followed SAMA’s completion of a proof of concept on May 13, 2025, after joining the project in June 2024. According to a statement from SAMA, the central bank had planned to withdraw from the collaboration, which was designed to facilitate direct transactions between participating central banks without relying on a single stablecoin. Instead, participants issued their own CBDCs on a shared ledger for cross-border payments and foreign exchange operations.