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

Confidence: Likely Updated 2026-05-26 Review by 2026-09-22 Sources 5 Machine-translated Original (JA)
#fintech#cbdc#mbridge#agora#bis#geopolitics
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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 Institutional Market Stablecoins = Only Bank-Issued Deposit Tokens Are Structurally Viable). 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.”

Sources