Digital money landscape shifts as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong adopt distinct policies

Global approaches to digital money are diverging as governments and central banks implement distinct regulatory and infrastructure frameworks. In Brazil, the central bank will prohibit regulated electronic foreign exchange (eFX) providers from using stablecoins or other virtual assets to settle payments with foreign counterparties starting October 1, under Resolution BCB 561.

In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from the mBridge project, a China-led multi-CBDC initiative, following its proof-of-concept phase. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is advancing toward 24/7 settlement capabilities using central bank digital currency (CBDC) through the EnsembleTX project, expected by the end of 2026.

A report by Capgemini projects that new digital money forms, including stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and CBDCs, could account for approximately 4% of global payment volumes by 2030. This shift toward ‘accelerated intelligent money’ aims to improve settlement certainty and liquidity. However, corporate demand is currently outpacing bank adoption; nearly 60% of corporate clients expressed willingness to use non-bank providers for stablecoin services if their current banks do not offer these capabilities.