BRICS Bloc Says Digital Currency to Replace U.S. Dollar Is "Imminent"

The BRICS bloc — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, plus newer members including Egypt, the UAE and Iran — has set an accelerated timeline for a digital cross-border payments system that, if it works, would let member states settle trade entirely outside the U.S. dollar and the SWIFT messaging network.

What's actually being built

The project, branded "BRICS Pay," is a digital settlement rail backed by central-bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and a unit of account pegged to a basket of member currencies. It is not, despite the headlines, a single shared physical currency.

"The technical foundations are ready. The political decision is the only remaining step." — Russian Finance Ministry statement

Why now

• U.S. sanctions on Russia after 2022 demonstrated, in vivid detail, how much leverage dollar dominance gives Washington.
• Iran's exclusion from SWIFT has created persistent friction in oil trade between Tehran and its largest customers — chiefly China and India.
• The expansion of BRICS to include major energy exporters has given the bloc the trade volumes needed to make an alternative system viable.

How serious is the threat to the dollar?

Most economists remain skeptical of an imminent dethroning. The dollar still settles roughly 88 percent of foreign-exchange transactions and backs more than 58 percent of global reserves. But the trend lines matter: BIS data show non-dollar settlement of cross-border trade has roughly doubled since 2020.

"Don't confuse a real diversification trend with a sudden collapse. Both can be true at once." — Eswar Prasad, Cornell University

Trump's response

The White House has threatened 100 percent tariffs on any country that "actively works to replace the dollar" — a line that has done little to slow BRICS planning and may, analysts say, be accelerating it.

Sources: Bank for International Settlements, IMF COFER, Reuters, Russian Ministry of Finance.