China-led cross-border CBDC platform mBridge surges past $55 billion in transaction volume: Reuters

China's flagship cross-border digital currency platform is reportedly seeing explosive growth as Beijing builds alternatives to dollar-dependent payment systems.

Project mBridge, a multi-central bank digital currency platform, has now processed more than 4,000 cross-border transactions with a cumulative value of approximately $55.5 billion, Reuters reported Friday, citing data from the Atlantic Council. The digital yuan accounts for roughly 95% of total settlement volume.

The platform's growth comes alongside broader momentum for China's domestic CBDC. The People's Bank of China recently reported that the e-CNY has processed more than 3.4 billion transactions worth roughly $2.4 trillion, for an increase of over 800% from 2023, according to Reuters.

China also recently began allowing commercial banks to pay interest on digital yuan holdings under a new framework that took effect Jan. 1, transitioning the e-CNY from digital cash to "digital deposit currency," as The Block previously reported.

The Bank for International Settlements unexpectedly exited mBridge in October 2024. BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens framed the departure as a "graduation" but also sought to distance the platform from speculation it could be used by BRICS nations to circumvent sanctions, stating categorically that "mBridge is not the BRICS bridge."

The BIS is now focused on Project Agorá, a rival initiative involving seven Western central banks including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan. That project announced this week it was stepping up testing, according to Reuters.

"Project mBridge is unlikely to challenge dollar dominance directly, but it may incrementally erode it," wrote the Atlantic Council's Alisha Chhangani.