PBOC official: Rapid growth of stablecoins pushing cross-border payments to new stage

Mu Changchun, head of the Digital Currency Research Institute at the People's Bank of China (PBOC), stated that the rapid development of stablecoins and various cryptocurrencies has pushed the global cross-border payment system into a new phase of development. Speaking at the 2026 Summer Davos Forum, Mu explained that the cumulative transaction value for the mBridge multilateral central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, which went live in June 2024, reached approximately 500 billion yuan by the end of 2025. He added that the ultimate goal for mBridge is to evolve into a new financial market infrastructure (FMI) built by central banks and involving financial institutions, based on multilateral governance and mutual benefit.