Project Acacia has reached a significant milestone with the selection of industry participants to explore innovations in digital money and settlement infrastructure for Australian wholesale tokenised asset markets. The project is a collaboration between the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC), supported by several Australian financial authorities.
A total of 24 use cases have been conditionally selected, including 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. Settlement assets include stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The issuance of pilot wholesale CBDC will be tested on multiple platforms like Hedera and R3 Corda. ASIC is providing regulatory relief to facilitate responsible testing of these tokenised asset transactions.
Testing will occur over six months, with findings expected in early 2026. This stage aims to support RBA’s research into financial system innovation.
Brad Jones from the RBA stated: “Ensuring that Australia’s payments and monetary arrangements are fit-for-purpose in the digital age is a strategic priority for the RBA.” He added that Project Acacia offers an opportunity for collaborative exploration on tokenised asset markets.
ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke commented: “Innovation is a sign of a vibrant economy and society. ASIC supports the responsible development of new technologies.”
Professor Talis Putnins from DFCRC noted: “It is great to have collaboration from so many parts of the industry…”
Project Acacia continues to explore how digital money can support wholesale tokenised asset markets in Australia.
