Saudi Arabia is no longer a participating member of mBridge, the cross-border digital-currency network that links central banks and commercial banks across several jurisdictions.
That sounds like a sudden break. The timeline says otherwise.
Saudi Arabia's mBridge participation ended after a planned proof of concept in May 2025, while the UAE remains operationally committed to the network through its Digital Dirham strategy.
UAE and Saudi banks, fintech teams, treasury professionals, cross-border payment providers and businesses following CBDC infrastructure.
The UAE can deepen Digital Dirham cross-border settlement, add participating institutions and test additional payment corridors through mBridge or interoperable CBDC arrangements.
Saudi Arabia's exit does not establish that mBridge has failed, and there is no official evidence reviewed by Robius proving US pressure caused SAMA's decision. Commercial scale and sustained transaction volumes remain the key tests.
Watch whether CBUAE expands mBridge transaction volumes and corridors, and what wholesale cross-border settlement approach Saudi Arabia pursues after completing its proof of concept.
Businesses should treat mBridge as wholesale banking infrastructure and follow their bank or CBUAE for any practical cross-border payment products built on it.
Participating banks and businesses could benefit if wholesale CBDC rails reduce settlement time, cost and correspondent-banking friction.
mBridge is wholesale infrastructure for approved central and commercial banking participants, not a consumer token or retail investment product.
UAE participating institutions, mBridge transaction volumes, new currency corridors, Digital Dirham rollout milestones and any new SAMA wholesale CBDC initiatives.
The Saudi Central Bank, or SAMA, told the Financial Times that it completed its planned mBridge proof of concept on 13 May 2025 and stopped being a participating member after that. The important new development in September 2026 is the public confirmation of the exit — not a fresh withdrawal this week.
For the UAE, the distinction matters because the Central Bank of the UAE remains one of mBridge’s founding central-bank participants and has already used the platform for real-value Digital Dirham transactions.
Saudi Arabia’s exit happened more than a year ago
SAMA joined the mBridge minimum viable product phase as a full participant in June 2024 after previously observing the project.
According to SAMA’s account reported on 20 September 2026, its participation was limited in scope and ended as planned when its proof of concept was completed on 13 May 2025.
That makes headlines describing Saudi Arabia as having suddenly “quit” the platform incomplete. The membership ended in 2025; the confirmation became public now.
What mBridge actually is
mBridge is wholesale financial infrastructure. It is not a consumer cryptocurrency, a BRICS currency or a retail wallet.
The platform uses central bank digital currencies and distributed-ledger technology to allow participating institutions to make cross-border payments and foreign-exchange settlements directly in central-bank money.
The original project brought together the Central Bank of the UAE, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Bank of Thailand, the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the BIS Innovation Hub. The BIS later announced in October 2024 that it was “graduating out” of the project as the central-bank partners continued the work.
The UAE’s position is different
The UAE has not treated mBridge as a short research exercise.
CBUAE launched the minimum viable product platform with its partners in June 2024 and said UAE licensed financial institutions had already been onboarded to initiate and process cross-border CBDC payments.
The UAE had also completed a AED50 million Digital Dirham payment to China through mBridge in January 2024, which CBUAE described as the first real-value cross-border CBDC payment between a MENA country and a country outside the region on an MVP-ready platform.
CBUAE’s own Digital Dirham reporting has since described mBridge as operational infrastructure for cross-border settlement while the UAE continues to assess its benefits and risks.
This does not prove a Saudi retreat from digital money
The Saudi exit should not be stretched into a broader conclusion that Riyadh has abandoned wholesale CBDCs or cross-border payment experimentation.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE previously worked together on Project Aber, a separate wholesale digital-currency experiment designed to test domestic and cross-border settlement between their central banks and participating commercial banks.
SAMA’s stated explanation for mBridge is narrower: it completed the proof of concept it had planned to run.
There is also no official Saudi statement establishing that US pressure caused the exit. Geopolitical questions around payment networks that can reduce dependence on correspondent banking are real, but they should not be presented as the confirmed reason for SAMA’s decision without evidence.
Why the UAE angle matters now
Saudi Arabia’s departure leaves a useful contrast between two Gulf approaches to the same experimental infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia used mBridge as a defined proof of concept and ended its formal participation. The UAE has integrated mBridge into a broader Digital Dirham and Financial Infrastructure Transformation strategy.
That does not guarantee mBridge becomes a dominant global payment rail. It does mean the UAE’s exposure is more operational than experimental: licensed institutions have been onboarded, real-value payments have already moved through the platform and CBUAE has publicly tied it to future cross-border settlement.
The development also lands as Saudi Arabia continues building other financial infrastructure. On 21 September, Robius reported that PIF’s Tawrid supply-chain finance platform is already operating under a SAMA Regulatory Sandbox permit, another example of the Kingdom testing new financial rails through controlled regulatory structures.
What to watch next
The bigger question is not whether Saudi Arabia re-enters mBridge. It is whether the network can turn central-bank experimentation into sustained commercial payment volume across its remaining jurisdictions.
For the UAE, the useful signals will be the number of participating licensed institutions, transaction volumes, additional currency corridors and how the Digital Dirham’s cross-border role develops as CBUAE moves toward wider implementation.
For Saudi Arabia, the signal will be what replaces or follows the completed mBridge proof of concept — whether through bilateral arrangements, another multi-CBDC network or different wholesale settlement technology.
The bottom line
Saudi Arabia is out of mBridge, but the timing matters: SAMA says its planned proof of concept ended on 13 May 2025. The public disclosure is new; the exit itself is not.
The UAE remains on a different path. CBUAE helped build mBridge, has onboarded UAE financial institutions and has already used Digital Dirham for real-value cross-border settlement on the platform.
Sources
Financial Times — Saudi Arabia quits China-led cross-border currency platform, 20 September 2026
Central Bank of the UAE — mBridge Minimum Viable Product platform for early adopters, 5 June 2024
Central Bank of the UAE — Project Aber
Checked 21 September 2026. Robius distinguished the date SAMA says its participation ended — 13 May 2025 — from the date the exit became public in September 2026. No official evidence reviewed by Robius establishes US pressure as the reason for the Saudi decision.
Robius.news — Dubai, UAE — 2026 | Built to be first. Built to be trusted.
