The United Arab Emirates made the first digital dirham transfer through the mBridge CBDC platform
Update: This article has been updated to reflect that mBridge is still in the testing phase and has not been commercially launched.
On January 29, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates conducted the first cross-border digital dirham transfer using the Ambridge Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) platform.
A 50 million dirham ($13.6 million) cross-border transfer of CBDC was sent to China using the multi-CBDC mBridge platform, Gulf News reported. Sheikh Mansour, Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, conducted the transfer of CBCC on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the establishment of the Central Bank.
Project mBridge was introduced in 2021 by the central monetary authorities of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). It is the only international cooperative partnership that includes China. The project completed its first trial period in September 2022.
The mBridge platform has onboarded several commercial banks from each participating member state to work on infrastructure and technology.
The mBridge ledger platform uses a single platform, direct access infrastructure to enable real-time, peer-to-peer transactions through the HotStuff+ consensus mechanism. The CBCC platform enables the rapid transfer of each country's national digital currency.
A member of the United States Congress has noticed mBridge's progress. Representative Maxine Waters, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said she was concerned about the potential for the project to be used as a cover to avoid economic penalties.
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After the popularity of blockchain technology and the use of digital currencies on the distributed ledger, governments around the world began using blockchain technology to create a national digital currency issued by a central bank.
According to the BIS, nearly 90% of central banks worldwide are interested in adopting CBDCs. According to the Atlantic Council's CBDC Tracker, 11 of these countries have implemented CBDCs, 15 are in the pilot phase, and 26 are in the development phase.
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