Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from mBridge, a China-backed cross-border digital currency project designed to enable direct transactions between central banks, according to the Financial Times.SAMA, Saudi Arabia’s central bank, joined mBridge as a full participant in June 2024 and ended its participation after completing a proof of concept on May 13, 2025, FT reported, citing a statement from the central bank. SAMA said it had planned to end its participation.MBridge was established in 2021 through a collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, with the aim of making cross-border payments faster and cheaper.Rather than using a single stablecoin, the platform allows participating central banks to issue and transact in their own digital currencies on a shared ledger, including for cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions.The project continued to develop under the BIS until October 2024, when the organization handed it over to the participating central banks after mBridge reached its minimum viable product stage. Then-BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens said the BIS departure was not politically motivated.The project has nevertheless drawn scrutiny from US policymakers. A 2024 report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said mBridge could eventually provide an alternative cross-border settlement system for countries seeking to evade US sanctions.Cointelegraph contacted the Saudi Central Bank for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.Related: Chinese newspaper warns of Bitcoin extortion scam using its nameChina weighs digital currencies’ role in cross-border paymentsChina’s central bank, meanwhile, has increasingly focused on the role stablecoins could play in cross-border payments as their use expands globally.In June, People’s Bank of China Research Bureau director General Wang Xin called for closer monitoring of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies in cross-border payments, along with greater international coordination.His comments came months after Chinese authorities restricted the unauthorized issuance of renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, including by foreign entities.Magazine: Who needs CLARITY anyway? ARB could see 70X increase: Hodler’s Digest

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Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.

Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a Bitcoin-backed borrowing service for institutional clients, allowing eligible Circle Mint customers to use BTC as collateral to borrow USDC through onchain lending markets.The service, called Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, lets customers deposit Bitcoin, mint Circle’s wrapped Bitcoin token cirBTC and supply it as collateral to supported third-party lending markets on Arc or Ethereum. Morpho is the first lending protocol supported, with Circle planning to add Aave and other protocols. The rollout coincides with cirBTC going live on Arc on Monday.According to Circle, borrowed USDC is deposited directly into the customer’s Circle Mint balance, while borrowing rates, collateral requirements and liquidation thresholds are set by the third-party lending market. The borrowing positions are overcollateralized, with collateral supplied through a customer-controlled wallet to third-party DeFi protocols rather than lent directly by Circle. New York clients are excluded.Circle previously launched cirBTC on Ethereum in June. The token is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held in custody by Circle National Trust.Both launches come days after Circle rolled out the Arc mainnet, its layer-1 blockchain targeting stablecoin payments and financial markets. Arc uses USDC as its native gas token and supports tokenized assets including BlackRock’s BUIDL and Circle’s USYC.Source: CircleInstitutional crypto lending expandsCircle’s launch follows a broader push to give institutional investors access to crypto-backed borrowing while keeping collateral within established custody arrangements.In February, Anchorage Digital partnered with Kamino to allow institutions to borrow against staked Solana (SOL) held at Anchorage Digital Bank, giving borrowers access to onchain liquidity without moving the collateral out of qualified custody.Bitcoin-backed models followed in March, when Lombard partnered with Bitwise to develop a system for borrowing against BTC held in custody, with Morpho providing the lending infrastructure. Unlike Circle’s model, which converts deposited BTC into cirBTC for use as collateral, Lombard’s system was designed to keep the underlying Bitcoin in custody without wrapping or bridging it.BitGo also expanded its institutional lending offering in March, launching a financing platform for borrowing and lending against liquid, staked and locked crypto assets held in custody. Its portfolio-based model allows multiple assets to serve as collateral rather than requiring collateral to be posted for individual loans.Magazine: Kyle Samani predicts SOL flippening, claims ‘no one’ uses ETH