Reshaping state-finance-tech nexus through central bank digital currencies: the case of the mBridge project

While technology adoption in financial markets is well researched by finance and social science scholars, the state's role in market-making warrants closer attention, especially how financial infrastructure emerges at the intersection of state, finance and technology, and their geopolitical and geoeconomic implications. This paper addresses this gap by examining tensions between centralisation and decentralisation within global financial networks through the case of the mBridge project. This is a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative involving five member states-China, Hong Kong, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Initially coordinated by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub in Hong Kong, the project continued after its withdrawal in October 2024. The analysis first considers how such a CBDC project emerges out of geoeconomic concerns with securing trade ties and enhancing monetary sovereignty. Second, it investigates shifts among participating technology companies, reflecting growing geopolitical concerns around technology sovereignty and payment security. These dynamics illustrate how financial innovation is increasingly shaped by domestic and international political agendas as well as bilateral relationships between states. Such research into CBDCs underscores the need to update our understanding of state and finance with emerging technology actors carving out new positions of influence in global and regional financial networks.