Testing the Waters: Tencent’s Trial of Digital Yuan and Mbridge in Trading Settlements
Tencent, the Chinese tech giant, has actively participated in the pilot phase of Mbridge, a cross-border settlement platform enabled by central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Through its international settlements arm Tenpay, Tencent piloted the use case of China’s digital yuan to settle e-commerce exports using Mbridge’s rails. The Mbridge project involves the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and recently, the Saudi Central Bank. Tencent’s early involvement in the digital yuan pilot and its integration of digital yuan payments into Wechat since March 2023 underscore its keen interest in these initiatives.
However, the decentralized nature of Mbridge has raised concerns among Western observers regarding its potential use to circumvent traditional settlement rails like SWIFT for avoiding economic sanctions.
Clever Robot News Desk 26th June 2024
