Quick answer: On 23 March 2023 the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) launched its Central Bank Digital Currency strategy, the Digital Dirham, and signed on G42 Cloud as infrastructure provider and R3 as technology provider. It is one of nine initiatives under the CBUAE’s Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) Programme. The first phase had three pillars: a soft launch of the mBridge cross-border platform, a proof of concept for a bilateral CBDC bridge with India, and a proof of concept for domestic wholesale and retail issuance.
Updated 07/17/2026. By Jake Claver. Educational content, not investment advice.
Most central bank digital currency coverage stays at the level of speeches and intentions. The Digital Dirham launch is more concrete, because the CBUAE named its partners, its phases, and its timeline in writing. That makes it a useful case study of what a central bank actually does when it decides to build digital money, rather than talk about it.
This post walks through the strategy using the CBUAE’s own release and contemporaneous reporting. The receipts at the end link to the central bank document and R3’s programme page.
What the CBUAE announced
The CBUAE press release describes a signing ceremony held in Abu Dhabi on 23 March 2023 with G42 Cloud and R3 to mark the start of implementation. The CBDC strategy sits inside the broader FIT Programme, the central bank’s nine-initiative plan to modernise the UAE’s financial infrastructure. In the CBUAE’s framing, the Digital Dirham is meant to serve both domestic payments and cross-border settlement, and to address the same problems every payment system faces: speed, cost, and settlement risk.
The three pillars of phase one
The first phase was scoped to complete over roughly 12 to 15 months. It broke into three parts:
- mBridge soft launch. A real-value cross-border CBDC platform for international trade settlement. mBridge is a multi-central-bank effort, and the UAE had already run a real-value pilot on it.
- A bilateral bridge with India. Proof-of-concept work for a direct CBDC link with India, one of the UAE’s largest trading partners.
- Domestic issuance. Proof-of-concept work for issuing the Digital Dirham inside the UAE, covering both wholesale (bank-to-bank) and retail (consumer) use.
Reporting at the time noted the central bank expected to finish this first phase by mid-2024, per CoinDesk’s coverage of the announcement.
Who R3 and G42 Cloud are
The division of labor is worth understanding. G42 Cloud is an Abu Dhabi cloud and infrastructure company, brought in on the hosting and infrastructure side. R3 is the enterprise software firm behind the Corda distributed-ledger platform, brought in as the technology provider. In other words, one partner supplies where the system runs and the other supplies the ledger technology it runs on. A law firm, Clifford Chance, was also engaged for the legal framework, which is a reminder that a CBDC is as much a legal instrument as a technical one.
Where mBridge fits
mBridge is the piece that connects the Digital Dirham to the wider central-bank world. It is a joint experiment involving the Bank for International Settlements and several central banks to test multi-CBDC cross-border payments. The UAE’s participation, including an earlier real-value pilot, is why cross-border settlement leads the phase-one list rather than trailing it. For institutions, the significance is that the UAE is not building an island: it is wiring its CBDC into a shared cross-border rail from the start. The BIS publishes its work on these multi-CBDC arrangements on the BIS site.
How this compares to other CBDC builds
The Digital Dirham is one of many national CBDC efforts, and comparing them shows different priorities. The United States, for example, produced Project Hamilton, a research collaboration between the MIT Digital Currency Initiative and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston that tested transaction-processing designs without committing to issuance. The UAE approach is more implementation-forward: named vendors, real-value pilots, and a delivery timeline. Neither path is inherently right; they reflect different mandates and different appetites for moving early.
Why this matters
A live, vendor-backed CBDC build from a major trade hub is a data point about where regulated digital money is heading. It shows a central bank treating tokenised settlement as operational plumbing, with cross-border interoperability and domestic issuance handled as parallel tracks rather than distant ambitions. That is a different conversation from token speculation. The technology story here, faster and cheaper settlement under central bank control, is separate from any investment implication, and this post makes no claim about the value of any asset. The useful takeaway is procedural: watch which central banks name partners and publish timelines, because those are the ones actually building.
Common questions
When did the UAE launch its Digital Dirham CBDC strategy?
The CBUAE launched the strategy with a signing ceremony in Abu Dhabi on 23 March 2023, marking the start of implementation alongside G42 Cloud and R3.
What roles do R3 and G42 Cloud play?
G42 Cloud is the infrastructure provider and R3 is the technology provider. R3 is the firm behind the Corda enterprise ledger platform. A law firm, Clifford Chance, was engaged for the legal framework.
What was in the first phase of the strategy?
Three pillars: a soft launch of the mBridge cross-border CBDC platform, a proof of concept for a bilateral CBDC bridge with India, and a proof of concept for domestic wholesale and retail issuance. The first phase was expected to complete by mid-2024.
What is mBridge?
mBridge is a multi-central-bank platform, involving the Bank for International Settlements and several central banks, that tests cross-border payments and multi-CBDC transactions. The UAE ran a real-value pilot on it before the Digital Dirham launch.
Is the Digital Dirham an investment?
No. A central bank digital currency is a digital form of the national currency, not a speculative asset. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything.
This content is educational only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
