Project Acacia, a collaborative effort between the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC), has announced significant progress. A number of industry participants have been selected to explore innovations in digital money and existing settlement infrastructure for developing Australian wholesale tokenised asset markets.
The initiative is supported by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), and the Australian Treasury. It was highlighted in the Government’s March 2025 Statement on Developing an Innovative Australian Digital Asset Industry.
A total of 24 innovative use cases from diverse organizations, including local fintechs and major banks, have been conditionally selected for this stage. There will be 19 pilot use cases involving real transactions and five proof-of-concept use cases with simulated transactions. These involve various asset classes such as fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, and carbon credits.
Proposed settlement assets include stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). The issuance of pilot wholesale CBDC will occur on several DLT platforms like Hedera, Redbelly Network, R3 Corda, Canvas Connect, among others.
ASIC is providing regulatory relief to support Project Acacia’s participants. This relief aims to streamline responsible testing of tokenised asset transactions using CBDCs between participants and financial institutions in upcoming months. ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke stated: “Innovation is a sign of a vibrant economy… Project Acacia will allow industry and regulators to work together… potentially boosting efficiency.”
Testing will take place over six months with findings expected in early 2026. The outcomes will inform ongoing research by RBA into how financial system innovation can support Australia’s economy digitally.
Lead participants include organizations like Australian Bond Exchange, ANZ Banking Corporation, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation among others.
Brad Jones from RBA remarked: “Ensuring that Australia’s payments… are fit-for-purpose in the digital age is a strategic priority… Project Acacia represents an opportunity for further collaborative exploration on tokenised asset markets.”
Professor Talis Putnins from DFCRC noted: “It is great to have collaboration from so many parts… Recent research suggests potential economic gains could be AU $19 billion per year.”
Project Acacia examines how digital money forms might aid wholesale tokenised asset market development in Australia. Initiated with a consultation paper released in November 2024 calling for feedback from industry stakeholders including ASIC APRA Treasury represented on its Steering Committee along with RBA DFCRC representatives.
