Australia’s Central Bank Names Private Partners to Test Tokenized Asset Uses

In an effort to advance Project Acacia—Australia’s effort to explore and advance digital money—the initiative will now include industry participants to explore how digital currencies and existing settlement infrastructure might support the development of Australian wholesale tokenized asset markets.

Project Acacia is a joint initiative between the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Sydney-based Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre. It was first announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Treasury in September 2024. The work is also supported by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Treasury. The project is among the initiatives highlighted in the Australian government’s “March Statement on Developing an Innovative Australian Digital Asset Industry.”.”

As part of a new phase of the project, 24 use cases from a diverse range of organizations, ranging from local fintech providers to major banks, have been conditionally selected. Organizations whose cases were selected include Northern Trust, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac.

According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, there will be 19 pilot use cases, which will involve real money and real asset transactions, and five proof-of-concept use cases involving simulated transactions.

The use cases will involve a range of asset classes, including fixed income, private markets, trade receivables and carbon credits. Proposed settlement assets for the use cases include a variety of digital asset types: stablecoins, bank deposit tokens and pilot wholesale central bank digital currency, as well as new ways of using banks’ existing exchange settlement accounts at the RBA.

ASIC has cleared the way for industry participation by providing regulatory relief to participants to support and streamline the pilot. ASIC’s relief will support the responsible testing of tokenized asset transactions between participants, in some cases using CBDCs,  and a limited number of financial institutions. ASIC has previously provided individual relief of a similar nature to participants in earlier digital money projects led by the RBA.

Testing of use cases will occur over the next six months, with a report on the project’s findings expected to be published in the first quarter of 2026.

Brad Jones, the RBA’s assistant governor for financial systems, said it is a strategic priority for the central bank to ensure Australia’s payments and monetary arrangements are fit for purpose in the digital age.

“Project Acacia represents an opportunity for further collaborative exploration on tokenized asset markets and the future of money by the public and private sectors in Australia,” Jones said in a statement. “The use cases selected in this project will help us to better understand how innovations in central bank and private digital money, alongside payments infrastructure, might help to uplift the functioning of wholesale financial markets in Australia.”

ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke said ASIC supports the responsible development of new technologies, including tokenization and distributed ledgers.

“Innovation is a sign of a vibrant economy and society,” O’Rourke said in a statement. “ASIC sees useful applications for the technologies underlying digital assets in wholesale markets. The relief from regulatory requirements that we have announced today will allow these technologies to be sensibly tested-to explore opportunities and identify and tackle risk. Importantly, Project Acacia will allow industry and regulators to work together to learn more about how these use cases may reshape the financial services industry, potentially boosting efficiency and foster economic growth.”

DFCRC Chief Scientist Talis Putnins added in a statement: “It is great to have collaboration from so many parts of the industry, from small fintechs to large banks, alongside the key financial regulators in this forward-looking, innovative project. The real money settlement models being tested, including issuing pilot wholesale CBDC on third party platforms, reflects another world-first for Australia in this rapidly evolving field.”

“Recent research suggests potential economic gains in markets and cross border payments could be in the order of $19 billion per year,” Putnins continued. “Project Acacia is a significant step towards realizing these gains, by providing evidence on the forms of money and settlement models that best enable tokenized real-world asset markets.”

The full list of partners for the 24 use cases is available here.

This ?article?originally appeared in our sister publication,?Financial Standard, which, like CIO, is owned by ISS STOXX.

Tags: asset tokenization, Australia, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Digital Assets, trade settlement