Bank of China Moves Yuan, HK Dollars Through mBridge, Setting Platform Record

Money bridge

The bank, one of China's big four commercial banks with more than $5tn in assets, said on Tuesday that the transfers on mBridge, known in Chinese as the 'Money Bridge', were executed by its Shenzhen and Fujian branches across June and July.

In June, BOC's Shenzhen branch completed an outbound cross-border remittance of RMB11.3bn ($1.67bn) through the blockchain-based multi-currency ledger for high-value trade settlements. Co-developed with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the platform offers an alternative to traditional Western banking networks. 

The BIS left the project in late 2024. mBridge now has six members, after Macau's monetary authority joined and went live on 2 Jun: mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Bypassing dollar rails

The platform lets commercial banks in member jurisdictions settle directly in central bank-issued digital currencies on a shared ledger. For members, mBridge lets multibillion-dollar trade deals settle without touching US bank rails or clearing through the US dollar and Western correspondent banks.

BOC's Fujian branch received an inbound transfer of more than HK$10bn (more than $1.28bn) in July. The bank did not disclose the exact figure. "The funds were initiated overseas and fully received in the domestic corporate account in less than one hour, setting a new record for the largest single transaction since the 'Money Bridge' began," the statement said.

Digital yuan dominates

While the platform maintains a decentralized, equal-partner structural design, it is functionally dominated by the People's Bank of China (PBoC). The digital yuan accounts for more than 95% of total settlement volumes across the network, according to a 15 Jan report by US think tank the Atlantic Council.

According to the report, the e-CNY has grown over 800% since 2023, becoming the world’s largest live central bank digital currency experiment, with cumulative transaction value exceeding $2.3tn by late 2025. Project mBridge transaction volume has surged to $55.49bn, a 2,500-fold increase over early-2022 pilots.

Early mover

BOC said that it is one of the earliest state-owned Chinese banks to participate in the direct peer-to-peer settlement network for sovereign money, debuting the remittance service in April 2024. The bank's own cumulative mBridge volume passed RMB600bn ($88.6bn) at the end of June, the statement said.

The bank said it would continue to use the cross-border payment service for "promoting the international use of the RMB" as well as "expanding the types of currencies, coverage scenarios and service areas to help enterprises deepen their presence in international markets and improve their global fund management."

Fraction of global flows

The record-setting transactions show mBridge moving from pilot to commercial-scale use, but the project still handles a fraction of global payment and settlement activity compared with the trillions of dollars settled daily using USD.

Its membership in Asia and parts of the Middle East confines it to a narrow corridor, not the broad global network that underpins USD clearing. The participating currencies may also face liquidity barriers, as China imposes capital controls, which may limit the platform's appeal to large, global firms that prefer the dollar's centrality and vast supply.

Because the network provides a way to settle trade without the dollar or traditional correspondent banking, it has drawn criticism from Western analysts that it could help countries under sanctions. The BIS rejected that reading when it left, with then-General Manager Agustín Carstens saying mBridge was not the BRICS bridge.