China is preparing to launch the commercial version of mBridge, a central bank digital currency platform that could reroute cross-border payments along the Belt and Road and chip away at the dollar's grip in specific trade corridors.

A new Hong Kong-based entity will oversee operations, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the preparations.

The platform is backed by the central banks of mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

People familiar with the rollout told the FT that preparations are advanced and that fees on the platform are expected to run at roughly half those of conventional systems such as SWIFT, although no firm launch date has been disclosed.

The pitch, those people said, is aimed in particular at smaller businesses that have long found international payment rails costly and slow.

The mBridge system began in 2021 as a Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub project linking the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE.

Saudi Arabia joined as a full participant in mid-2024, the same year the BIS reached its minimum viable product milestone before stepping back from direct stewardship and handing the platform to the participating central banks.

The system uses wholesale central bank digital currencies and distributed ledger technology to settle cross-border payments in seconds, bypassing the correspondent banking chains that route most international transfers.

Atlantic Council data show mBridge has now cleared more than 4,000 transactions worth roughly $55.5 billion, a 2,500-fold jump from its 2022 pilots, with China's digital yuan accounting for about 95% of settlement volume.

The commercial push lands as activity on China's renminbi clearing system, CIPS, draws sharper attention.

Another Atlantic Council analysis found daily transaction volume on CIPS climbed above $130 billion in mid-to-late March, with the system reporting a March daily average of $134 billion, well above the $85 billion to $105 billion range of the prior year.

The uptick coincides with the war in Iran that began on Feb. 28, though the data alone do not establish Iran-linked flows. mBridge is structured as a separate, complementary track for digital renminbi (Chinese yuan) settlement.

UAE officials have already taken mBridge live.

In November 2025, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan executed the first cross-border digital dirham payment to China via the platform, which the Central Bank of the UAE described as the official launch of the UAE-China mBridge corridor. Saudi Arabia, the fifth full member, has been testing wholesale CBDC settlement between commercial banks.

Analysts at the Atlantic Council say mBridge is unlikely to dethrone the dollar outright, but could erode its centrality in specific corridors, particularly energy and commodity trade between China and the Gulf.

The next test will be how aggressively the central banks open the platform to commercial users once the Hong Kong operating entity is in place.