The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended that the government include a proposal for linking the Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) of BRICS nations in the agenda for the upcoming BRICS summit. This was reported by Reuters citing its own sources.
This initiative aims to simplify cross-border trade and payments in tourism, while also reducing dependence on the US dollar.
The next BRICS summit will take place in India this year. The organization comprises ten countries, including the original five members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Journalists noted that the intention to bypass the dollar could provoke discontent from the United States administration, which has already warned against such attempts. President Donald Trump previously labeled the alliance as "anti-American" and threatened to impose additional tariffs.
The RBI's proposal is based on a declaration adopted at the 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the parties emphasized the need to ensure compatibility of payment systems to enhance mutual trade efficiency.
The Russian Ministry of Finance has stated that it is working on launching the BRICS Bridge platform for settlements in national currencies, including digital ones.
China's CBDC Payment Solution Sees 2500-Fold Increase
All major participants in the BRICS alliance are implementing national digital currency projects, but China has made the most progress with its e-CNY.
According to the Atlantic Council, transaction volumes in the digital yuan have surged over 800% since the pilot launch in 2023, exceeding $2.3 trillion.
To expand domestic use of the asset, Beijing employs a strategy that combines interest income generation with stablecoin-like functionality while maintaining sovereignty and regulation.
At the wholesale level, China continues to develop the mBridge project—a solution for cross-border payments in CBDC. This initiative was originally launched by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Participants include regulators from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
During initial experiments, mBridge processed only 164 transactions totaling around $22 million. However, by October 2024, BIS exited the project.
Since then, activity on the platform has surged. Under the guidance of partner central banks, mBridge has conducted over four thousand cross-border transactions worth approximately $55.49 billion, representing a more than 2500-fold increase compared to 2022.
The digital yuan accounts for 95.3% of the total transaction volume.
"Collectively, these events indicate a gradual expansion of the yuan's internationalization through digital infrastructure. […] The mBridge project is unlikely to directly challenge the dollar's dominance, but it may gradually weaken it in specific corridors, sectors, and use cases," experts from the Atlantic Council noted.
Instead of directly aiming to replace the US currency, China and its partners are building parallel payment systems to reduce reliance on existing ones, they pointed out.
It is worth noting that the US may lose the digital competition to China due to strict stablecoin regulations, according to Coinbase. SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci expressed a similar view regarding the ban on yield-bearing stablecoins in the Clarity Act legislation.