Central Bank of the UAE turns the Digital Dirham into a launch-adjacent settlement signal

How CBUAE's July 2025 Digital Dirham package changes the market read from CBDC exploration to disclosed operating design.

By late July 2025, the Central Bank of the UAE had provided enough public evidence to read the Digital Dirham as an operating program with sovereign settlement ambitions.

The core signal is not just CBDC intent: CBUAE described a platform for issuing, trading, and using Digital Dirham via wallets for individuals and businesses, while the July primer added an intermediated LFI distribution model, RTGS-linked issuance infrastructure, full convertibility with other forms of dirham-denominated money, and cross-border settlement capability.

The UAE now looks like a market where central-bank programmable cash and regulated payment tokens are being built as complementary, not interchangeable, rails.

By July 2025, CBUAE public materials described RTGS-linked issuance, intermediated wallet distribution through licensed financial institutions, completed retail and cross-border pilots, and near-term rollout. That makes the Digital Dirham an infrastructure signal, not a generic CBDC study.