Global CBDC developments in 2025: Emerging trends and geostrategic considerations

As jurisdictions around the world continue exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), 2025 has seen a notable shift in emphasis from early retail-payment pilots toward broader infrastructure, cross-border projects and strategic policy objectives.

For the UK, these developments provide useful insight into how international CBDC thinking is evolving. This can provide interesting insight in the context of the Digital Pound; however, as ever, the context of each project is critical.

Growing international activity across retail and wholesale CBDCs

Global interest in CBDCs remains on the agenda for policy makers around the world. According to the Atlantic Council tracker, there are currently more than 70 countries are now in either a development or pilot phase, with over 130 jurisdictions formally examining some form of digital currency.

In 2025, several countries advanced their work:

India – The Reserve Bank of India reported that circulation of the digital rupee (e₹) reached Rs 1,016 crore by March 2025, up significantly from a year earlier. The RBI also announced plans to explore cross-border CBDC pilots, which signalled an interest in international interoperability.

Australia – The Reserve Bank of Australia launched Phase 2 of Project Acacia, focusing on wholesale CBDC use cases and tokenised bank deposits in collaboration with major financial institutions. A report is due out in April.

Singapore – The Monetary Authority of Singapore expanded its trials involving wholesale CBDC for interbank transfers, tokenised bills, and regulatory frameworks for stablecoins. MAS noted that work is being carried out alongside international partners, including the Bank of England.

These examples show a growing focus on infrastructure, tokenisation and settlement - rather than only on retail wallets or consumer payments.

Evolving motivations: sovereignty, resilience and cross-border efficiency

A number of studies, e.g. Nottingham Trent University’s publication Political motives behind global adoption of Central Bank Digital Currency revealed in new study, published in 2025, highlight that CBDC projects continue to be shaped by wider policy objectives. One recent academic review found that political and strategic considerations - including governance, transparency and control over payment rails - influence how and why countries pursue CBDCs.

In Europe, policymakers have framed the digital euro partly as a measure to reinforce monetary and payment-system sovereignty in the face of increasing reliance on non-European digital platforms. We have seen differences of opinion emerge between the ECB, Commission and Parliament over the extent to which a CBDC or European private sector initiatives are the right way to address these risks.

While the objectives differ across jurisdictions, common themes include:

Promoting resilience in domestic payments networks

Reducing dependency on global private payment intermediaries

Supporting future tokenised financial-market infrastructures

Improving cross-border settlement efficiency

Where the UK sits in this international context

The UK is currently in the design phase of Digital Pound work, with a detailed blueprint expected in 2026. Against this, the global developments of 2025 offer several points of comparison:

Pace and scope – Some jurisdictions are moving quickly into phase-two pilots involving wholesale settlement, tokenised assets and multilateral cross-border collaboration. In contrast, the UK has opted for a staged approach, focusing on analysis, design papers and structured experimentation through the Digital Pound Lab. However, separately, it has also been investigating the opportunities in the wholesale space too, for example, through its work on synchronisation.

International interoperability – There are ongoing discussions about how CBDCs might operate in a global context. The BIS project m-Bridge has been part of exploring the opportunities here, but it remains a challenge.

Strategic framing – While some economies emphasise sovereignty or geopolitical risk, the UK’s motivations continue to centre on domestic payments innovation, competition and maintaining public access to central-bank money in a digital economy. Some of the recent design notes have focused on interoperability with physical cash, alias services and offline payments.

A changing global narrative

The international conversation on CBDCs appears to be shifting in several ways:

From retail to wholesale – Many 2025 pilots focus on wholesale settlement, tokenised bank liabilities and infrastructure modernisation.

From domestic to cross-border – Several jurisdictions are testing mechanisms for faster and more secure cross-border flows, which often involve regional partnerships. Outside of a Digital Pound, the Bank is actively involved in several BIS projects, such as Meridian and Agora.

From innovation to risk management – Issues such as cybersecurity, operational resilience and financial stability are now featuring more prominently in central-bank discussions around the world.

From isolated projects to ecosystem thinking – CBDCs are increasingly discussed alongside stablecoins, tokenised deposits and real-time payment upgrades, rather than as standalone systems. This aligns with the multi-money vision of the Bank of England.

Overall, it remains hard to envisage a one-size-fits-all approach to CBDC for different jurisdictions. Different motivations, domestic payments landscapes, and market gaps will drive different approaches. Interest from central banks in retail CBDCs does appear to be cooling, and in its place a focus on core central bank settlement innovation is continuing to develop.

Area of expertise:

Payments, innovation & resilience