Digital Yuan Cross-Border Payments Hit $55 Billion Milestone
China's central bank digital currency (CBDC), the e-CNY, has processed $55 billion in cross-border transactions through the mBridge platform, according to a Reuters report citing data compiled by the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. The mBridge platform is a multi-CBDC bridge designed to facilitate real-time cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions using the digital currencies of participating nations. Reuters reporter Marc Jones wrote that transfers conducted through mBridge have surpassed $55 billion, with 95% settled in e-CNY. The platform settles transactions within seconds at near-zero cost by bypassing traditional systems like SWIFT, removing intermediaries, and employing smart contracts for compliance, fixed exchange rates, and cryptographic security.
Participants and Transaction Details
The mBridge platform is used by the People's Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the UAE, and the Bank of Saudi Arabia, with an additional 20 commercial banks participating. According to Atlantic Council data, the protocol has handled more than 4,000 transfers. Alisha Chhangani of the Atlantic Council told Jones: “Taken together, these developments point to a gradual expansion of the yuan’s internationalization through digital infrastructure. Project mBridge is unlikely to challenge dollar dominance directly, but it may incrementally erode it.” Additionally, data from the People's Bank of China shows that e-CNY has settled approximately 3.4 billion transactions worth about 16.7 trillion yuan ($2.4 trillion), indicating that the digital yuan is moving beyond pilot-stage optics into functional deployment, particularly in cross-border settlement, outpacing every other nation.
Global CBDC Landscape
Atlantic Council data indicates that, as of the end of 2025, alongside China's global leadership in CBDCs, 136 other countries are in development, pilot, or launch stages. Three countries have fully rolled out retail CBDCs: the Bahamas (Sand Dollar), Jamaica (JAM-DEX), and Nigeria (eNaira). Venezuela's PETRO is not classified as a fully realized CBDC, as it operated more like a state-backed cryptocurrency token without genuine central bank issuance on a sovereign ledger. While e-CNY is unlikely to upend the dollar-based system outright, its growing transaction volume, institutional backing, and expanding international rails via mBridge point to a slow but deliberate recalibration of how global payments infrastructure may evolve in the coming years.