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A Digital Silk Road for BRICS: India’s RBI Floats a CBDC Link-Up That Could Redraw Global Payments
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has quietly placed a bold idea on the table: link the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) of BRICS nations to create a seamless, low-cost, cross-border payment system for trade and tourism. If adopted, the proposal could mark a turning point in how emerging economies move money—less like a maze of correspondent banks, more like a high-speed digital highway. It also arrives amid rising geopolitical friction, when the plumbing of global finance has become as strategic as aircraft carriers.
This would be the first time BRICS leaders formally debate interconnecting their official digital currencies at a summit. India, which is set to host the BRICS summit in 2026, is pushing to put the idea on the agenda—an unmistakable signal that New Delhi wants to shape the architecture of the next monetary era.
What’s on the Table—and Why Now
According to reports citing officials familiar with internal discussions, the RBI has recommended that the Indian government advance the proposal for the 2026 BRICS summit. The vision is straightforward but ambitious: ensure interoperability among CBDCs issued by BRICS central banks so payments can move instantly, cheaply, and securely—without routing through dollar-dominated intermediaries.
Think of it as a “digital Silk Road” for money. Today’s cross-border payments often crawl through a thicket of correspondent banks, time zones, fees, and compliance checks. A linked CBDC network could replace that with near-instant settlement, programmable compliance, and dramatically lower costs—especially attractive for trade invoicing, remittances, and tourism flows among BRICS economies.
The proposal also builds on lessons from existing arrangements. India and Russia, for instance, have used bilateral foreign-exchange swap mechanisms to manage trade imbalances. When Russia accumulated large rupee balances it couldn’t easily spend, policy adjustments allowed those funds to be invested in Indian bonds. A multilateral CBDC framework could make such fixes systemic rather than ad hoc.
The Expanding BRICS Canvas
BRICS—originally Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Together, the bloc accounts for more than 40% of global economic activity, a scale that makes even incremental financial coordination globally consequential.
The RBI proposal extends a direction set at the 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, where leaders emphasized improving payment-system interoperability to facilitate cross-border commerce. What was once a technical aspiration is now inching toward institutional reality.
Where CBDCs Stand Today
None of the BRICS nations has fully rolled out a universal retail CBDC, but momentum is unmistakable:
India launched the e-rupee in December 2022 and has reached roughly seven million retail users. Its design emphasizes offline payments, programmability for targeted subsidies, and integration with fintech wallets to drive adoption.
China is far ahead in pilots of the digital yuan, with growing ambitions to extend its use beyond borders—particularly in trade settlement.
Brazil, Russia, and South Africa are also testing CBDCs at varying stages, though public data on user adoption is uneven.
In other words, the pieces exist. The challenge is snapping them together.
Economics First—But Politics Loom Large
Officially, the RBI maintains that the initiative is about efficiency, not ideology. And the economic case is strong: faster settlement, lower transaction costs, and tighter trade links within a bloc that spans energy exporters, manufacturing hubs, and fast-growing consumer markets.
Yet the de-dollarisation undertone is impossible to miss. Even if no one says the word out loud, a BRICS CBDC network would naturally reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar for intra-bloc trade. That matters at a time when sanctions, tariffs, and geopolitical shocks have turned the dollar’s centrality into both a convenience and a vulnerability.
The stakes are heightened by rhetoric from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has labeled BRICS “anti-American” and warned of economic repercussions, reinforcing the sense among BRICS members that payment autonomy is not a luxury but a strategic necessity. Broader BRICS discussions—ranging from a common currency to neutral settlement mechanisms—reflect a desire to hedge against dollar dominance, especially in commodities and energy trade long anchored to the petrodollar system.
Geopolitics as the Hidden Hand
Geopolitical tensions are the accelerant. Sanctions regimes, trade disputes, and flashpoints from Eastern Europe to Latin America have nudged BRICS countries toward alternatives that can’t be frozen, blocked, or weaponized. Digital currencies—particularly when backed by central banks—offer a way to move value outside traditional chokepoints.
India’s 2026 chairmanship adds another layer of symbolism. The unveiling of a summit logo featuring a lotus—a motif closely associated with the ruling BJP—signals New Delhi’s intent to play a visible leadership role. Hosting a summit that debates the future of global payments would cement that ambition.
The Hard Parts: Technology, Trust, and Power
For all its promise, the proposal faces formidable hurdles.
Technically, interoperability is hard. CBDCs differ in architecture, privacy models, compliance rules, and settlement mechanisms. Aligning them requires deep coordination on standards, cybersecurity, and governance.
Politically, trust is uneven. Some members may resist adopting platforms or protocols perceived as dominated by another—particularly China. Others worry about how trade imbalances would be settled in a multilateral system without recreating old asymmetries in new digital form.
Strategically, there’s an unresolved tug-of-war over leadership. China naturally sees the yuan as a contender for primacy; India and Russia have favored more neutral arrangements with equal stakes. In practice, the Russia-India-China (RIC) triangle may be the real decision-making core within the expanded BRICS.
This is why some technologists and commentators float the idea of a neutral bridge asset—such as XRP or another distributed ledger token—to avoid privileging either the dollar or the yuan. Whether central banks would entrust settlement to such an asset remains an open question.
A Multipolar Future, Written in Code
Public reactions—especially on social media—range from exuberant optimism to hard-nosed skepticism. Enthusiasts predict double-digit reductions in dollar usage within BRICS trade through a hypothetical “BricsChain.” Skeptics point to unresolved border tensions and political rivalries as brakes on integration. Some even call for Southeast Asian nations to join a future BRICS currency framework.
What’s clear is that the RBI’s proposal fits neatly into BRICS’ long-term quest for economic autonomy. It doesn’t guarantee a post-dollar world—but it does sketch a plausible pathway toward one. If money is the bloodstream of globalization, then BRICS is experimenting with a new circulatory system—digital, programmable, and less dependent on a single heart.
Whether this vision becomes reality will depend on the 2026 summit and the willingness of diverse nations to trade a bit of sovereignty for a lot of efficiency. But the direction of travel is unmistakable: the future of global payments may be written not just in treaties and tariffs, but in code.
The Hidden Plumbing of Digital Money: Why CBDC Interoperability Will Decide the Future of Global Finance
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are often discussed as shiny new instruments—digital cash for a digital age. But their real power does not lie in how a single CBDC works within a country. It lies in whether CBDCs can talk to each other. Interoperability—the ability of different CBDC systems to seamlessly communicate, exchange data, and settle transactions—is the quiet, structural question that will determine whether digital money becomes a transformative global utility or just another fragmented payment rail.
If CBDCs are the trains of the future, interoperability is the track gauge. Get it wrong, and every border becomes a derailment.
What Is CBDC Interoperability—and Why It Matters
CBDC interoperability refers to the capacity of distinct digital currency systems—domestic or cross-border, DLT-based or centralized—to transact with one another without friction. That means money can move across systems as easily as data moves across the internet.
Done right, interoperability can:
Slash cross-border payment costs and settlement times
Improve transparency and compliance
Reduce reliance on correspondent banking chains
Enable programmable, automated compliance
Expand financial inclusion by integrating CBDCs into existing payment ecosystems
Today’s cross-border payments are notoriously inefficient: slow, expensive, opaque, and riddled with intermediaries. Interoperable CBDCs attack these weaknesses directly by enabling either direct value transfer between systems or tightly coordinated, near-instant settlement through trusted bridges.
Interoperability is not just a technical challenge. It is a design philosophy, spanning technology, law, governance, and geopolitics.
Three Architectural Paths to Interoperability
Central banks and global institutions—most notably the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)—generally group CBDC interoperability into three models. Each reflects a different trade-off between sovereignty, efficiency, and complexity.
1. Compatible Systems: Loose Alignment, Maximum Sovereignty
In this model, CBDC systems remain fully independent but agree on common standards—much like countries agreeing to drive on the same side of the road, without sharing vehicles.
How it works
Common messaging standards such as ISO 20022
Harmonized data formats and compliance fields
No direct technical links between systems
Strengths
Easiest and fastest to implement
Preserves national control
Encourages competition and innovation
Coexists smoothly with legacy payment rails
Limitations
Users may still need intermediaries for FX conversion
Fragmentation risk if standards diverge
Requires separate access arrangements for each system
Compatible systems are politically attractive but operationally modest. They improve the map—but don’t yet build highways.
2. Interlinked Systems: Bridges, Hubs, and Digital Corridors
Interlinked systems connect CBDCs through technical bridges or shared access points, allowing transactions without full participation in each foreign system.
This is where interoperability becomes functional.
How it works
API gateways and DLT connectors
Bilateral links or hub-and-spoke architectures
Atomic settlement mechanisms (PvP and DvP)
Shared compliance and messaging interfaces
Strengths
Seamless cross-border flows
Fewer intermediaries
Enables programmability and automated compliance
Scales incrementally
Challenges
Governance complexity
Security risks at bridge points
Technical heterogeneity (DLT vs non-DLT) requires adapters
Shared rules without shared ownership can be fragile
This model mirrors how the internet scaled: independent networks connected through agreed protocols. It is also where most real-world experimentation is happening today.
3. Single System: One Platform, Many Currencies
The most ambitious—and controversial—model is a unified infrastructure hosting multiple CBDCs under a common rulebook.
How it works
Shared DLT ledger or centralized infrastructure
Tokenized multi-currency environment
Common APIs, protocols, and settlement logic
Strengths
Maximum efficiency
True atomic settlement
Minimal reconciliation
Globally scalable in theory
Risks
Sovereignty concerns
High political coordination costs
Potential single point of failure
Governance disputes over rule-setting
This is the financial equivalent of a shared global operating system. Powerful—but politically radioactive.
The Technical Engines Under the Hood
Interoperability is powered by a layered technology stack, not a single breakthrough.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)
Many CBDC pilots use permissioned DLT platforms such as Hyperledger Fabric, Corda, or Ethereum-based Besu. DLT enables:
Immutable transaction records
Programmability via smart contracts
Atomic settlement (PvP and DvP)
Reduced settlement risk
For cross-ledger transfers, mechanisms like hashed time-locked contracts (HTLCs) and atomic swaps allow value to move across systems without intermediaries.
APIs and Interoperability Bridges
APIs act as translators between systems, handling:
Transaction routing
Identity verification
Compliance checks
Data exchange
Bridges can connect DLT-based CBDCs with non-DLT fast payment systems (such as instant retail rails), ensuring no country is locked out by architecture choices.
Standards and Protocols
ISO 20022 has emerged as the lingua franca of modern payments, enabling rich, structured data for compliance and transparency. Other standards cover:
Encryption
Identity
Privacy-preserving verification
Network security
Technology-agnostic design is critical: interoperability must work across blockchains, databases, and future systems not yet invented.
Security and Privacy
Interoperability increases attack surfaces, making security non-negotiable. Key tools include:
Strong encryption and key management
Multi-factor authentication
Redundancy and failover systems
Privacy-enhancing technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs
The goal is a paradox: maximum verifiability with minimal data exposure.
Universal Payment Channels: A Financial USB-C
One compelling idea is the Universal Payment Channel (UPC), proposed by Visa. Think of it as a USB-C port for money—a neutral hub that connects multiple blockchain networks and CBDC ledgers regardless of their internal design.
UPC-style models could:
Enable instant, secure transfers
Reduce bilateral integration costs
Avoid technological lock-in
Accelerate global adoption
Whether central banks embrace such neutral hubs will shape the next decade of payments.
Governance: The Harder Problem Than Code
Technology is the easy part. Governance is the grindstone.
Interoperability demands alignment on:
AML/KYC standards
Capital flow controls
Sanctions compliance
Legal enforceability
Dispute resolution
A crucial design principle is emerging: programmability should apply to transactions, not to the money itself, preserving CBDC fungibility while allowing conditional payments.
Public–private collaboration, international bodies, and standard-setting initiatives are essential to prevent fragmentation and regulatory arbitrage.
Cross-Border Reality Checks
Cross-border CBDC use introduces macroeconomic risks:
FX volatility
Asymmetric currency holdings
Capital flight
Spillover effects into domestic monetary policy
Payment-versus-payment (PvP) mechanisms reduce settlement risk, while limits on international use may be needed to protect domestic stability. Interoperability must not become a backdoor to monetary destabilization.
Proof Points: Interoperability in the Wild
Several pilots already demonstrate that interoperability is not theoretical:
mBridge (BIS): A DLT-based multi-CBDC platform linking China, Thailand, UAE, and Hong Kong with atomic settlement.
Project Nexus (BIS): A hub-and-spoke model interlinking fast payment systems, offering a blueprint applicable to CBDCs.
Swift Experiments: Successful connections between DLT-based CBDCs and legacy systems using connector gateways.
Helvetia Phase II (Switzerland): Tokenized assets with direct central bank settlement.
These pilots confirm feasibility—and expose the trade-offs.
The Bigger Picture: Money as a Network, Not a Flag
CBDC interoperability is not just about faster payments. It is about re-architecting global finance for a multipolar world. In such a world, no single currency, platform, or nation monopolizes trust. Instead, trust is distributed, encoded, and enforced by shared rules.
Interoperability is a choice. Choose fragmentation, and CBDCs become digital silos. Choose connection, and money begins to behave like the internet—border-aware but border-resilient.
The future of digital finance will not be decided by who launches a CBDC first, but by who builds the bridges that let digital money flow.
BRICS and the Reinvention of Money: How CBDCs Are Becoming the Financial Spine of a Multipolar World
The BRICS bloc—once a loose acronym for fast-growing emerging economies—has quietly become one of the most ambitious laboratories for the future of money. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, now joined by Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia (as of 2025), are all pursuing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) with an intensity that reflects more than just technological curiosity. What is unfolding is a coordinated attempt to modernize payments, reclaim monetary autonomy, and redraw the plumbing of global finance.
If the US dollar has long functioned as the world’s financial operating system, BRICS is experimenting with a parallel architecture—modular, interoperable, and increasingly digital.
The Global Context: Why BRICS Is Moving Now
BRICS’ CBDC push mirrors a global acceleration. As of late 2025, 137 countries—representing roughly 98% of global GDP—are exploring CBDCs, with nearly 50 already in pilot stages. What distinguishes BRICS is not whether it is experimenting, but why.
For BRICS nations, CBDCs serve multiple strategic objectives:
Payment efficiency in large, often fragmented domestic markets
Lower transaction costs, especially for cross-border trade
Financial inclusion for underbanked populations
Reduced exposure to the US dollar amid sanctions, tariffs, and geopolitical pressure
No BRICS country has yet launched a full nationwide retail CBDC, but all five core members are in advanced pilots, while newer members range from feasibility studies to wholesale trials. The emphasis has shifted decisively from domestic experimentation to cross-border interoperability—the point where CBDCs become geopolitically consequential.
From National Pilots to Collective Architecture
The real story is no longer individual CBDCs, but how BRICS is trying to connect them.
The 2025 Rio Declaration: A Turning Point
At the 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, leaders formally emphasized payment system interoperability as a strategic priority. This was more than boilerplate language. It marked consensus that fragmented national CBDCs would deliver limited value—and that the real prize lay in a shared settlement fabric.
Joint BRICS CBDC Initiatives: Building the Digital Highways
1. India’s RBI Proposal: A BRICS “Digital Highway”
In a significant move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has urged the Indian government to place a proposal on the agenda of the 2026 BRICS summit, which India will host. The plan: link BRICS CBDCs to enable seamless cross-border payments for trade and tourism.
The vision is a “digital highway”—a network allowing local-currency settlements without routing through the dollar or correspondent banks. Bilateral FX swaps would help manage trade imbalances, addressing problems seen in past local-currency trade experiments.
If approved, this would be the first formal BRICS leaders’ discussion focused specifically on CBDC interconnection, with early operational pathways potentially emerging by 2030.
2. The BRICS Bridge: A SWIFT Alternative in the Making
Initially discussed under Russia’s 2024 BRICS chairmanship, the BRICS Bridge is a proposed DLT-based wholesale CBDC platform designed to enable local-currency settlements outside the SWIFT network.
Conceptually, it:
Builds on lessons from existing BIS projects
Targets wholesale and interbank settlements first
Could integrate with BRICS Pay, the bloc’s broader payment initiative
If realized, the Bridge would function as a neutral settlement layer—less a new currency, more a new rail.
3. mBridge: The Prototype Already in Motion
The most concrete success story so far is mBridge, initially launched by the BIS and now jointly managed by participating central banks. It includes China, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, and Thailand (a BRICS partner).
By January 2026:
Over $55 billion in transactions had been processed
Atomic settlement (payment-versus-payment) was achieved
Wholesale cross-border use cases were proven at scale
For BRICS, mBridge is not a curiosity—it is a working blueprint, potentially expandable to sanctioned economies like Russia and Iran, and adaptable to a broader BRICS-wide framework.
4. BRICS Pay: The Consumer-Facing Layer
Running in parallel is BRICS Pay, a blockchain-based payment system expected to launch around 2026. While initially focused on non-dollar retail and commercial payments, BRICS Pay could eventually integrate CBDCs for multilateral settlement—becoming the visible interface of a deeper monetary shift.
Country by Country: A Patchwork Moving in the Same Direction
While strategies differ, momentum is unmistakable.
China’s e-CNY is the world’s largest CBDC pilot, with transactions nearing a trillion dollars and a clear international ambition via mBridge.
India’s e-Rupee has crossed 7 million users, integrates with UPI, and experiments with offline payments and programmable subsidies.
Brazil’s Drex focuses on tokenization and wholesale finance, tightly integrated with Pix.
Russia’s Digital Ruble is moving toward mandatory infrastructure for large firms, with cross-border use prioritized among friendly nations.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are positioning wholesale CBDCs as part of their ambition to be global financial hubs.
Iran’s Digital Rial explicitly targets sanctions resilience.
The newer BRICS members—Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia—are earlier in the curve, but their participation signals long-term alignment rather than short-term readiness.
Why This Matters: Motives Beyond Technology
Economic Autonomy
In 2024, Russia conducted nearly 90% of its trade in local currencies with key partners. CBDCs promise to make such arrangements smoother, cheaper, and more scalable.
De-Dollarization by Design, Not Declaration
BRICS officials often deny that CBDCs are about de-dollarization. Technically, that may be true. Strategically, the effect is unavoidable. Even conservative estimates suggest 20% or more of intra-BRICS trade could shift away from the dollar over time.
This has implications for:
Petrodollar dynamics
Sanctions enforcement
Global liquidity flows
Unsurprisingly, US policymakers increasingly frame BRICS as “anti-American,” even as BRICS frames its actions as defensive diversification.
The Friction Points: Where the Vision Strains
Ambition does not erase constraints.
Technical heterogeneity: DLT vs centralized systems require complex bridges
Governance: Who sets the rules in a multi-CBDC world?
Trust deficits: Reluctance to adopt platforms perceived as dominated by China
Imbalances: Past local-currency trade produced excess holdings and settlement frictions
At the core sits the RIC triangle—Russia, India, China—where strategic alignment is necessary but never guaranteed.
The Road Ahead: 2026 to 2030
The 2026 BRICS summit in India is shaping up to be a catalytic moment. It could:
Formalize CBDC interoperability as a bloc-wide objective
Align mBridge, BRICS Bridge, and BRICS Pay into a coherent stack
Signal to global markets that a parallel settlement system is no longer hypothetical
Full implementation, however, is likely a gradual march toward 2030, not a sudden rupture.
Conclusion: From Currency to Infrastructure
BRICS’ CBDC initiatives are less about creating a new global currency and more about rewiring global finance. Think of it not as replacing the dollar, but as reducing its monopoly over the pipes.
In a world drifting toward multipolarity, money is becoming infrastructure—programmable, interoperable, and politically consequential. BRICS is betting that whoever controls the rails of digital value will shape the next era of globalization.
Whether this experiment succeeds will depend not on code alone, but on trust, governance, and the willingness of diverse nations to share a financial future without surrendering sovereignty.
How a Quiet Central Bank Experiment Is Rewiring Global Payments—and Power
In the world of international finance, money has always traveled slowly, expensively, and obediently—moving through a maze of correspondent banks, clearing houses, and legacy systems designed in the mid-20th century. Cross-border payments today still resemble a relay race run with paper batons and fax machines.
mBridge seeks to change that.
mBridge is a multi–central bank digital currency (multi-CBDC) platform built on distributed ledger technology (DLT), designed to enable instant, peer-to-peer, cross-border payments and settlements in multiple sovereign currencies. If SWIFT is the nervous system of the old financial order, mBridge aspires to be something closer to a neural network—direct, programmable, and real-time.
At its core, mBridge enables foreign-exchange payment-versus-payment (PvP) transactions, ensuring that two currencies are exchanged simultaneously, eliminating settlement risk, reducing costs, and collapsing transaction times from days to seconds. It directly targets the structural inefficiencies of traditional cross-border finance: high fees, long delays, opaque pricing, and heavy dependence on intermediaries.
Originally incubated by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, mBridge has now crossed a critical threshold. It is no longer an experiment. It is operational—processing tens of billions of dollars—and increasingly geopolitical.
Origins: From Proof of Concept to Platform
The roots of mBridge trace back to 2019, with Project Inthanon–LionRock, a joint initiative between the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT). The goal was modest but revealing: explore whether wholesale CBDCs could improve cross-border payments.
Using DLT, the project built a proof-of-concept involving ten commercial banks. The results—published in late 2019 and early 2020—suggested something profound: cross-border payments did not need layers of trust if trust could be encoded into software.
In 2021, the project evolved into mBridge (Phase 3). New heavyweight participants joined:
The Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC)
The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE)
The BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Hong Kong
A working prototype was demonstrated in September 2021, followed by a landmark real-value pilot in October 2022. By 2024, the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) had joined, and mBridge reached minimum viable product (MVP) status.
Then came a pivotal moment.
In October 2024, the BIS formally handed control of mBridge to its founding central banks, citing the completion of its exploratory mandate. Behind the language of institutional process lay a deeper reality: sanctions risk. A platform capable of bypassing traditional Western payment rails was no longer politically neutral.
Who Runs mBridge—and Who Is Watching
Core Participants
The founding and operating members of mBridge are:
People’s Bank of China (PBoC)
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)
Bank of Thailand (BOT)
Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE)
Saudi Central Bank (SAMA)
BIS Innovation Hub (initial lead; exited in 2024)
Each participant operates validating nodes, making governance decentralized—but not egalitarian.
While technically multilateral, mBridge is widely described as China-led, with the digital yuan (e-CNY) dominating transaction volumes and use cases.
Observers: The World Is Paying Attention
As of late 2024, over 25 countries and institutions were observing mBridge, including:
Central banks from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East
The IMF and World Bank
The European Central Bank
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Reserve Bank of India
Multiple BRICS and ASEAN central banks
In other words, even those building parallel systems are studying this one closely.
What mBridge Is Designed to Do
mBridge’s objectives are both technical and strategic:
Multi-CBDC support, with multiple sovereign currencies coexisting on the same ledger
Decentralized governance, enforced through a bespoke rulebook and legal framework
The platform integrates directly with domestic wholesale CBDCs such as:
e-CNY (China)
e-HKD (Hong Kong)
Digital Dirham (UAE)
Technically, mBridge proves that sovereign money can be programmable without being privatized—a critical distinction from stablecoins.
Milestones That Matter
2021: Prototype and scope definition
2022: Pilot with 160+ real-value transactions totaling ~HK$171 million
2024:
MVP achieved
Saudi Arabia joins
BIS exits governance
UAE conducts first government transaction using wholesale digital dirham
2026 (January):
~$55.49 billion in cumulative transactions
4,047 cross-border payments processed
~95% of volume denominated in e-CNY
To put this in perspective: transaction volume has increased 2,500-fold since the 2022 pilot.
Geopolitics: Payments as Power
mBridge is not just financial plumbing—it is monetary geopolitics encoded in software.
By enabling large-scale trade settlement outside traditional dollar-centric systems, mBridge:
Advances the internationalization of the yuan
Supports de-dollarization efforts among BRICS and Global South nations
Reduces vulnerability to financial sanctions
Shifts leverage from correspondent banks to central banks
The BIS’s withdrawal and the emergence of a separate Western-aligned CBDC interoperability project involving the New York Fed and ECB underscore a reality long avoided: the global financial system is fragmenting along geopolitical lines.
mBridge is one pole of that emerging multipolar order.
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, mBridge is poised for:
Deeper integration with commercial banking systems
Expanded use in energy, commodities, and large-scale trade finance
Additional jurisdictions joining as participants, not just observers
Interoperability with retail CBDCs, such as future versions of e-HKD
Enhanced e-CNY features, including interest-bearing functionality, expected around 2026
Yet challenges remain:
Regulatory harmonization across jurisdictions
Governance trust among unequal powers
Political pushback from dollar-aligned systems
The risk of bifurcated global payment standards
Conclusion: A Bridge—and a Fault Line
mBridge is aptly named. It is a bridge between currencies, jurisdictions, and eras—but also a bridge over a widening fault line in global finance.
What railroads were to 19th-century empires and oil pipelines to the 20th, digital payment infrastructure is to the 21st. mBridge demonstrates that money no longer needs to flow where geopolitics allows—it can flow where code permits.
Whether it becomes a universal artery or one branch of a divided system will define the next chapter of global finance. But one thing is already clear: the age of slow, dollar-only money is ending—and mBridge is one of the reasons why.
How De-Dollarisation Is Moving from Rhetoric to Infrastructure
For nearly eight decades, the US dollar has functioned as the central gravity well of global finance. Trade contracts, energy markets, foreign exchange reserves, and payment systems have all orbited around it. To transact internationally was, in effect, to pass through Washington’s monetary atmosphere.
BRICS—originally Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and now expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia—is attempting something subtler than a revolution and more ambitious than reform: a gradual rewiring of the global financial nervous system to reduce dependence on the dollar.
This effort, broadly labeled de-dollarisation, is not about dethroning the USD overnight. It is about building alternatives quietly, piece by piece, until the dollar is no longer the only bridge across global commerce.
Why De-Dollarisation Now?
The push is driven by three overlapping forces:
Geopolitical pressure US sanctions, tariffs, and financial restrictions—particularly on Russia and Iran—have exposed the dollar system as not merely economic, but political. Access can be curtailed. Assets can be frozen. Payment rails can be switched off.
Strategic autonomy In a multipolar world, major economies are unwilling to let their trade lifelines depend on a single sovereign currency governed by another state’s domestic politics.
Technological opportunity Digital payments, blockchain infrastructure, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) make it possible to design new settlement systems that simply did not exist 20 years ago.
As of 2025, the US dollar still accounts for roughly 58% of global foreign exchange reserves—down from over 70% two decades ago. That decline is slow, but persistent. Meanwhile, BRICS now represents more than 40% of global GDP, and its internal trade is increasingly conducted outside the dollar.
This is not a frontal assault. It is financial erosion.
From Rhetoric to Reality: What BRICS Is Actually Doing
At recent summits—most notably the 2025 Rio de Janeiro summit—BRICS leaders have avoided inflammatory language about replacing the dollar. Instead, they have focused on plumbing: payment systems, currency settlement, and interoperability.
The strategy is pragmatic. Rather than declaring independence from the dollar, BRICS is making the dollar optional.
1. Local-Currency Trade: The Quiet Workhorse
The most immediate—and effective—tool of de-dollarisation has been the expansion of local-currency trade settlements.
Key developments include:
Russia conducting up to 90% of its BRICS trade in local currencies by 2024–2025
China–Brazil trade, with roughly 25–30% settled in yuan and real
India’s rupee-based oil purchases from Russia, totaling roughly $13–15 billion between 2022 and 2024
Expansion of non-dollar oil trade involving Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE
These arrangements reduce the dollar’s role as a middleman currency. No slogans required—just fewer dollars changing hands.
2. CBDCs and the Digital Bypass
The more transformative—and longer-term—effort lies in central bank digital currencies.
In January 2026, the Reserve Bank of India proposed formally placing CBDC linkage among BRICS nations on the agenda of the 2026 India-hosted BRICS summit. The idea is to create a “digital highway” for cross-border payments in currencies such as:
India’s e-rupee
China’s e-CNY
Future digital versions of the ruble, real, dirham, and riyal
This builds directly on platforms like mBridge, which by early 2026 had already processed over $55 billion in cross-border transactions using wholesale CBDCs.
The significance is not cosmetic. CBDC interoperability enables:
Atomic settlement (payment and currency exchange occur simultaneously)
Lower costs and near-instant settlement
Reduced reliance on SWIFT and correspondent banks
Direct central-bank–to–central-bank trust
If implemented at scale by around 2030, this could become the digital backbone of non-dollar trade.
3. BRICS Pay and BRICS Bridge: Parallel Rails
Beyond CBDCs, BRICS is experimenting with blockchain-based payment systems:
BRICS Pay, a decentralized platform targeting launch around 2026, designed to process high transaction volumes without dollar settlement
BRICS Bridge, a DLT-based wholesale platform discussed under Russia’s 2024 chairmanship, intended to interlink with mBridge
These systems are not meant to replace SWIFT globally. They are meant to ensure that BRICS trade does not depend on SWIFT at all.
Think of them as regional power grids built so that a blackout elsewhere does not shut the lights off at home.
4. Financial Institutions Without Washington in the Middle
BRICS has also built institutional alternatives:
New Development Bank (NDB)
$100B+ authorized capital
Issuance of bonds in yuan, rupees, and other local currencies
Expanded local-currency lending after 2023
Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA)
$100B liquidity pool
Designed as an IMF backstop alternative
Enables currency swaps and emergency support without dollar conditionality
These institutions do not overthrow Bretton Woods—they route around it.
5. The Elusive Common Currency
Discussions about a BRICS common currency or neutral settlement unit surface regularly, often amplified in media headlines. In reality:
No unified currency is imminent
The focus is on basket-based units, commodity-linked instruments (e.g., gold), or blockchain-based neutral settlement layers
Proposals remain exploratory rather than operational
This is best understood as a long-term option, not a near-term plan.
What Has Been Achieved So Far?
Intra-BRICS trade exceeded $500 billion in 2025, with a high proportion settled in non-dollar currencies
The dollar’s share of global reserves has continued its slow decline, while gold and yuan holdings rise
Digital pilots like mBridge have proven that large-scale non-dollar settlement is technically viable
Sanctions have unintentionally accelerated adoption of these alternatives
In effect, necessity has become innovation.
The Frictions and Fault Lines
De-dollarisation is not frictionless.
Key obstacles include:
Technological fragmentation (DLT vs centralized systems)
Governance tensions, especially reluctance to adopt China-led infrastructure
Trade imbalances, such as Russia accumulating large rupee surpluses
Political tensions, particularly between India and China
External pressure, including US tariff and sanctions threats
The dollar’s enduring advantages: liquidity, depth, and trust built over decades
As many analysts note, there will be no sudden dollar collapse—only gradual diversification.
Looking Ahead: 2030 and Beyond
The 2026 BRICS summit in India could be a turning point if:
CBDC linkage moves from proposal to pilot
BRICS Pay enters operational testing
Interoperability standards are agreed upon
Most forecasts suggest a 10–15 year horizon in which de-dollarisation manifests not as replacement, but as plurality:
More currencies in reserves
More regional payment systems
Less single-point vulnerability
The dollar would remain dominant—but no longer singular.
Conclusion: The Dollar’s Shadow Is Still Long—but No Longer Alone
BRICS is not trying to slay the dollar dragon. It is building roads that go around the dragon’s lair.
De-dollarisation, as practiced by BRICS, is not a protest—it is infrastructure. It is less about ideology and more about options. In a world where finance has become a geopolitical weapon, optionality is power.
The future taking shape is not post-dollar. It is multi-currency, multi-rail, and multipolar.
And once those rails are laid, the direction of history rarely reverses.
