The UAE's "digital dirham" CBDC has completed its first government-level transaction, taking less than two minutes to test.

According to Mars Finance, the Ministry of Finance of the UAE and the Dubai Department of Finance announced that the first transaction has been completed in the pilot phase of the Digital Dirham Central Bank Digital Currency. This marks the first significant progress since the project's launch. The transaction was executed through the government payment platform mBridge, marking a key step for the UAE in applying national digital currency to government and private sector operations. Ahmed Ali Meftah, Executive Director of Central Accounting at the Dubai Department of Finance, stated that this transaction aims to test the technical integration and operational readiness of the central bank system, taking less than two minutes for the entire process, validating the potential of Digital Dirham in enhancing Settlement efficiency and shortening intergovernmental payment cycles. According to a policy document released by the Central Bank of the UAE in July, the issuance of Digital Dirham will be carried out in phases, initially used only for payment purposes to avoid competition with savings or interest-bearing products. This project is seen as an important initiative by the Central Bank of the UAE to respond to the evolution of the monetary system in the digital economy era. According to the Atlantic Council, currently, only Nigeria, the Bahamas, and Jamaica have officially issued CBDC, while 49 other countries are in the pilot phase.