UAE's Digital Dirham CBDC Pilot Goes Live — Global List of Launched, Piloting, and Developing CBDCs

Key Takeaways

• The UAE has joined the planetary CBDC race, officially launching its Digital Dirham pilot.

• Over 130 countries — representing 98% of planetary GDP — are processing oregon investigating CBDCs.

• Only 4 countries person afloat launched their integer currencies truthful far.

Around the world, cardinal banks are accelerating efforts to contented their ain integer currencies, known arsenic Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), to modernize fiscal systems and trim reliance connected backstage cryptocurrencies and cash.

As of November 2025, 137 countries and currency unions, representing astir the full planetary economy, are actively exploring CBDCs.

Yet, lone a fistful person successfully launched afloat operational systems.

This week, the United Arab Emirates became the latest federation to instrumentality a large measurement forward, launching a aviator of its Digital Dirham, signaling its ambitions to articulation the tiny but increasing database of countries experimenting with government-backed integer currencies.

CBDCs are a integer signifier of a nation’s fiat currency, issued and regulated by its cardinal bank.

Unlike cryptocurrencies specified arsenic Bitcoin (BTC) oregon Ethereum (ETH), CBDCs are centralized and afloat backed by the issuing authority.

The superior goals of CBDCs alteration by state — from improving cross-border outgo ratio to expanding fiscal inclusion and reducing the costs of handling cash.

Some besides spot CBDCs arsenic tools for strengthening monetary sovereignty successful an progressively integer fiscal landscape.

CBDCs typically travel successful 2 forms:

• Retail CBDCs, which people consumers for payments and savings; and

• Wholesale CBDCs, which absorption connected interbank transfers and settlements betwixt fiscal institutions.

The United Arab Emirates officially launched its Digital Dirham aviator connected Nov. 11, 2025, executing the country’s archetypal blockchain-based transaction done the cardinal bank.

The Digital Dirham is simply a retail CBDC pegged 1:1 to the UAE dirham (AED), built to enactment faster, cheaper, and much unafraid fiscal transactions.

The aviator is being developed utilizing mBridge, a multi-CBDC cross-border level co-developed by the cardinal banks of the UAE, China, Hong Kong, and Thailand.

According to the UAE Central Bank, the Digital Dirham volition beryllium gradually expanded into peer-to-peer, commercial, and cross-border usage cases passim 2026, with a afloat motorboat targeted for precocious 2026.

Officials person said the CBDC volition assistance trim remittance costs, a cardinal economical operator successful the Gulf, portion improving transparency, security, and interoperability with different integer outgo systems.