Chinese-Backed mBridge Platform Smashes $55 Billion in Cross-Border CBDC Transactions
Forget SWIFT delays and correspondent banking fees. A new digital highway for central bank money just hit a staggering milestone.
The mBridge Goes Mainstream
Cross-border payments just got a blockchain-powered bypass. The mBridge platform, a multi-central bank digital currency (CBDC) project spearheaded by Chinese institutions, has officially processed over $55 billion in transactions. That's not pilot-phase volume—that's real economic weight moving on a 24/7 settlement layer.
How It Cuts Through the Noise
The platform connects participating central banks directly. It slashes transaction times from days to seconds and bypasses the traditional, costly intermediary chain. Think of it as a dedicated financial rail built for the digital age, where central banks are the primary operators.
The Global Ripple Effect
This isn't just a tech demo. It's a live, scaling challenge to the dollar-dominated payment infrastructure. Every billion that flows across mBridge is a billion that doesn't get caught in legacy system friction—a quiet but profound shift in how value moves globally.
The Bottom Line
A $55 billion transaction volume sends a clear signal: the future of wholesale cross-border finance is being built on distributed ledgers, and China is laying the tracks. Traditional finance giants are left watching from the platform, clutching their fee schedules as the digital express speeds by. After all, what's a banking consortium compared to a central bank blockchain?
mBridge transaction volume has seen a 2,500-fold increase since 2022
The report showed that the central banks have completed over 4,000 transactions through the platform, signaling renewed efforts by the countries involved to develop alternatives to dollar-dependent global payment systems. The report emphasized that the cumulative transaction volume of $55.5 billion represents a 2,500-fold increase since 2022.
The mBridge project was launched in 2021 as a collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the central banks of Asian countries, including China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. The digital yuan (e-CNY) accounts for 95% of the platform’s transaction volume and is the world’s largest live central bank digital currency project.
According to data from the People’s Bank of China published by the Atlantic Council, the e-CNY processed transactions worth more than $2 trillion in 2025, marking the 6th year of positive volume growth since its inception in 2021. This week, the coalition announced further rigorous testing of the e-CNY alongside 40 other central commercial banks.
On December 29, an article by Lu Lei, the Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China, published by Financial News, indicated that commercial banks that operate e-CNY wallets will begin paying interest to holders of the digital currency, depending on the amount they hold.
Alisha Chhangani, associate director at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, said that the role of e-CNY’s development is not to “displace the dollar outright but to build parallel settlement rails that limit reliance on existing dollar-based systems.” She also added that the project is unlikely to replace the U.S. dollar’s dominance, but it could erode it over time.
Donald Trump bans CBDCs, endorses privately issued stablecoins
On the other side of the world, U.S. President Donald TRUMP signed an executive order on January 23 that prevents federal agencies from issuing or endorsing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), citing associated risks to user privacy and financial stability.
Trump said his administration WOULD take measures to protect U.S. citizens from the risks of CBDCs. He also added that the central bank’s issuance of digital currencies threatens the United States’ sovereignty. Before Trump took office for his second term in January 2025, CBDC development in the U.S. was still in its early theoretical stages, with progress primarily based on research.
In contrast, Trump has publicly endorsed privately issued stablecoins and provided clarity for institutions to join the stablecoin bandwagon. His administration passed the GENIUS Act back in July last year, a legislation that became the first national law regulating stablecoin issuers through the Treasury and law enforcement rules. The law requires stablecoin issuers to register as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.
Following regulatory developments, Stablecoins have attracted growing interest from larger players, including institutions and banks. A previous report by Cryptopolitan highlighted that the Stablecoin market hit a new peak at $310.117 billion. Tether’s USDT currently dominates the stablecoin sector, with a market cap of $186 billion, while Circle’s USDC follows with a market cap of $75 billion, according to CoinGecko.
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