China moves USD 55,000 million with its rival system to SWIFT

2026-01-20 01:26:22

Source: Criptonoticias Original Title: China Moves USD 55 Billion with Its Rival SWIFT System Original Link: https://www.criptonoticias.com/comunidad/adopcion/china-mueve-usd-55000-millones-cbdc-rival-swift/

Summary

mBridge processes over 4,000 transactions, a 2,500% jump since 2022.
The digital yuan accounts for 95% of the volume, marking its global expansion.

Content

The mBridge platform, a cross-border payment system using central bank digital currencies (CBDC) led by China, has processed over 55 billion dollars in transactions. This rapid growth positions this payment system as an emerging alternative to the traditional SWIFT system.

By November 2025, mBridge completed more than 4,000 cross-border transactions, totaling 55.490 billion dollars. This volume represents an increase of approximately 2,500 times since the initial pilots in 2022, when 164 transactions worth 22 million dollars were recorded, according to an analysis by the Atlantic Council published recently.

mBridge, which has now been fully governed by the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia since October 2024, has seen its activity accelerate. In this context, China’s digital yuan (e-CNY) significantly dominates the volume, accounting for approximately 95.3% of total settlements on the platform.

China’s multi-CBDC platform, mBridge, has processed about 4,047 transactions worth over 55 billion dollars.

A significant step occurred in November 2025, when the Ministry of Finance of the United Arab Emirates and the Dubai Finance Department executed the first government financial transaction. They used the wholesale digital dirham on the mBridge platform, settling funds without intermediaries. This operation marked the formal start of the launch phase of the Emirati wholesale CBDC.

The progress of mBridge is part of China’s strategic efforts to reduce dependence on dollar-based payment systems in specific corridors and sectors of international trade. Although the current volume of mBridge remains small compared to the vast global SWIFT system, its rapid growth underscores the expansion and consolidation of sovereign CBDC infrastructures worldwide.

Since 2024, SWIFT has been testing its CBDC platform to connect 200 countries and 12,000 banks. On January 15, 2026, it established collaborations with BNP Paribas Securities Services, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Société Générale. This test demonstrated the exchange and settlement of tokenized bonds, while supporting payments in both fiat and digital currencies.

Unlike mBridge, this specific test does not detail the direct use of wholesale CBDCs. Its focus is on tokenized assets and regulated stablecoins, as part of SWIFT’s efforts to explore interoperability in the digital realm. Thus, China’s mBridge project appears to be taking more concrete steps in integrating central bank digital currencies compared to its SWIFT rival.

On the other hand, the e-CNY, which remains the world’s largest live central bank digital currency experiment, recorded over 3.4 billion transactions worth approximately 2.3 trillion dollars by the end of 2025. This demonstrates the momentum the nation is giving to its centralized payment system.

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