mBridge vs Agora · BIS's 2025 two-track contrast of a same-year switch

Wiki route

This entry sits under fintech index. Read it with Japan Financial Regulation — Legal Framework for Tokens, Crypto Assets, and Payments for adjacent context and Three-Layer Structure of Japan's Stablecoin Regulatory Regime (JPYC, USDC, Project Pax) for the broader system boundary.

[!info] TL;DR 2025 年was the pivotal year in which the BIS performed a “track switch” in its CBDC cross-border-payment strategy: in 10 it withdrew from mBridge (BRICS+ multi-CBDC) + accelerated, throughout the year, its push for Agora (tokenized correspondent banking among 7 central banks + private banks). The 2 projects shifted from the two tracks of a “neutral bridge” and a “dollar-friendly bridge” into a binary structure of “China-led” vs “US/Europe-led.”

Key facts

• BIS 2025-10 withdrawal from mBridge · accelerated push for Agora in the same year ^•
• mBridge central-bank members 5(PBoC / HKMA / BoT / CBUAE / SAMA) · all non-G7 ^•
• Agora central banks 7 行: Fed / BoE / BoJ / SNB / Banque de France / Bank of Korea / Banco de México ^•
• Agora is a “tokenized correspondent banking” model · central banks + commercial banks jointly validate ^•

Mechanism / How it works

mBridge and Agora both adopt permissioned DLT + BFT consensus at the technical layer, but their governance and participation structures are fundamentally different. mBridge is a two-layer structure of central-bank nodes + commercial-bank sub-participants, bypassing SWIFT + Fedwire and settling directly in each country’s CBDC. Agora, by contrast, is “tokenized correspondent banking” — central banks issue tokenized reserves · commercial banks issue tokenized deposits · settling jointly on a unified ledger; in essence it is “putting the existing SWIFT/Fedwire correspondent banking on-chain,” and does not overturn the dollar system (for the deposit token thesis, see Choosing digital money for institutional settlement). The BIS’s 2025 switch means the BIS chose the route of an “on-chain patch” rather than an “alternative system” — having the dollar side embrace tokenization, while leaving mBridge to the autonomy of the non-dollar side.

Origin & evolution

2021 年 mBridge launched · over the same period Agora was only BIS-internal ideation. 2023-2024 年 mBridge entered MVP, Agora was still in the preparatory stage. 2024-04 Agora officially announced · 7 central banks + 41 commercial banks joined (JPM / Citi / HSBC / Mitsubishi UFJ FG (MUFG), etc.). 2025-Q1-Q3 Agora completed its first atomic settlement PoC · mBridge was over the same period encircled by G7 political pressure. 2025-10 the BIS announced its withdrawal from mBridge operations — while continuously promoting Agora’s progress. 2026-Q2 interoperability testing between mBridge and Brazil’s DREX · Agora entered a central-bank expansion-recruitment phase. The two projects shifted from “the BIS two tracks” into “the technology stacks of opposing 2 currency camps.”

Related

• Wiki Index
• mBridge · BIS Multi-CBDC Cross-Border Payment Bridge (Overview)
• BIS Project Agorá Overview
• Comparison of US, EU, and Japanese stablecoin regimes — No confirmed MRA; market access reviewed separately
• GENIUS Act Section 18: Comparison of Foreign Regulatory Regimes

Sources